diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/README.md b/tools/ai-tools/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..39b1339a4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# AI tooling (Gamut)
+
+Internal home for **Cursor plugins**, **Claude Code plugins**, and related agent tooling. Contents under `examples/templates/` are **reference templates**—copy and adapt when starting something new; promote separate copies if they become production plugins. These are **not** published or distributed through Cursor or Claude Code marketplaces; they exist only as in-repo starting points.
+
+## Conventions
+
+- **Naming:** Use kebab-case for plugin directories and manifest `name` fields.
+- **Review:** Treat changes like other shared engineering standards (PR review, clear purpose in the manifest `description`).
+- **Scope:** Keep examples minimal; grow plugins in dedicated folders or repos when they need CI, tests, or release versioning.
+
+## Claude Code and these templates
+
+Use a copied template with **`--plugin-dir`** pointing at the plugin folder (for example `examples/templates/claude-plugin` while experimenting in this repo). See [Claude Code — Create plugins](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins).
+
+We are **not** planning to distribute these templates through a plugin marketplace. If you later publish your own plugin, see Anthropic’s docs for [plugin marketplaces](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugin-marketplaces); that is separate from these Gamut reference templates.
+
+The Claude template includes a minimal `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` **only** so the optional Gamut `install-plugin` helper can resolve a local `plugin@marketplace` spec when registering this directory with the Claude CLI on your machine. It does **not** imply publishing or listing these templates anywhere.
+
+## Validate manifests
+
+From the repository root:
+
+```bash
+npx nx run ai-tools:validate
+```
+
+This parses each example `plugin.json` so broken JSON is caught early.
+
+## Further reading
+
+### Official documentation
+
+- [Cursor — Plugins reference](https://cursor.com/docs/reference/plugins)
+- [Claude Code — Create plugins](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins)
+- [Claude Code — Plugins reference (Anthropic docs)](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/plugins-reference)
+- [Nx — Introduction](https://nx.dev/docs/getting-started/intro)
+- [Nx — Crafting your workspace](https://nx.dev/docs/getting-started/tutorials/crafting-your-workspace)
+
+### Reference repositories
+
+- [cursor/plugins](https://github.com/cursor/plugins) — Spec, marketplace layout, multiple plugins in one repository
+- [cursor/plugin-template](https://github.com/cursor/plugin-template) — Scaffold for single- and multi-plugin repos
+- [planetscale/cursor-plugin](https://github.com/planetscale/cursor-plugin) — Third-party plugin example (skills, MCP-oriented patterns)
+- [anthropics/claude-plugins-official](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official) — Official Claude Code plugin catalog (`plugins/`, `external_plugins/`)
+- [anthropics/claude-plugins-official — example-plugin](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official/tree/main/plugins/example-plugin) — Reference plugin layout
+- [modelcontextprotocol/servers](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers) — MCP server reference implementations
+
+### Monorepo structure
+
+- [Nx — Virtuous cycle of workspace structure](https://nx.dev/blog/virtuous-cycle-of-workspace-structure)
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/README.md b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9f17564fda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# agent-manager (vendored)
+
+Local copy of the web-platform CLI used by `yarn install-plugin` at the Gamut repo root. Canonical source and history: `experiments/agent-manager` in the web-platform repository.
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/package.json b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..659577286b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{
+  "name": "agent-manager",
+  "version": "0.0.1",
+  "description": "A command-line helper to manage agent tooling.",
+  "type": "module",
+  "main": "src/index.ts",
+  "scripts": {
+    "typecheck": "tsc -p tsconfig.json"
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+    "@cliffy/command": "npm:@jsr/cliffy__command@^1.0.0"
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "@types/node": "^25.5.0"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/commands/install.ts b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/commands/install.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9359541677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/commands/install.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+import { Command, EnumType } from '@cliffy/command';
+import { spawn } from 'node:child_process';
+import { cp, mkdir, readFile, rm, stat, symlink } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { homedir } from 'node:os';
+import { basename, join, resolve as resolvePath } from 'node:path';
+import process from 'node:process';
+
+const CURSOR_INSTALL_METHOD = process.env.CURSOR_INSTALL_METHOD ?? 'copy';
+
+export type Agent = 'cursor' | 'claude';
+
+type MarketplaceJson = {
+  name?: string;
+  plugins?: { name?: string; source?: string }[];
+};
+
+function expandUserPath(raw: string): string {
+  if (raw === '~') {
+    return homedir();
+  }
+  if (raw.startsWith('~/')) {
+    return join(homedir(), raw.slice(2));
+  }
+  return raw;
+}
+
+async function resolvePluginSource(raw: string): Promise<string> {
+  const expanded = expandUserPath(raw);
+  const root = resolvePath(expanded);
+  const st = await stat(root).catch(() => undefined);
+  if (!st?.isDirectory()) {
+    throw new Error(`Source is not a directory: ${raw} → ${root}`);
+  }
+  return root;
+}
+
+async function cursorDestFolderName(sourceRoot: string): Promise<string> {
+  const cursorManifest = join(sourceRoot, '.cursor-plugin', 'plugin.json');
+  try {
+    const text = await readFile(cursorManifest, 'utf8');
+    const j = JSON.parse(text) as { name?: string };
+    if (j.name && typeof j.name === 'string') {
+      return j.name.replace(/^@/, '').replace(/\//g, '-');
+    }
+  } catch {
+    /* no manifest */
+  }
+  return basename(sourceRoot);
+}
+
+async function claudePluginSpecFromMarketplace(
+  sourceRoot: string
+): Promise<string> {
+  const mp = join(sourceRoot, '.claude-plugin', 'marketplace.json');
+  let text: string;
+  try {
+    text = await readFile(mp, 'utf8');
+  } catch {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Missing ${mp}. For Claude Code, add a local marketplace file (see https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugin-marketplaces ) or use: claude --plugin-dir ${sourceRoot}`
+    );
+  }
+  const { name: marketplaceName, plugins } = JSON.parse(
+    text
+  ) as MarketplaceJson;
+  if (!marketplaceName || !Array.isArray(plugins) || plugins.length === 0) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Invalid marketplace.json (need name and plugins[]): ${mp}`
+    );
+  }
+  const entry =
+    plugins.find(
+      (p) => p.source === './' || p.source === '.' || p.source === undefined
+    ) ?? plugins[0];
+  const pluginName = entry?.name;
+  if (!pluginName) {
+    throw new Error(`No plugin name in marketplace.json plugins[]: ${mp}`);
+  }
+  return `${pluginName}@${marketplaceName}`;
+}
+
+function runCommand(command: string, args: string[]): Promise<number> {
+  return new Promise((resolveCode, reject) => {
+    const child = spawn(command, args, { stdio: 'inherit', shell: false });
+    child.on('error', (err: NodeJS.ErrnoException) => {
+      if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
+        reject(new Error(`${command} not found on PATH.`));
+      } else {
+        reject(err);
+      }
+    });
+    child.on('close', (code) => resolveCode(code ?? 1));
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Registers the plugin folder as a local marketplace and installs into Claude’s plugin cache
+ * (see https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugin-marketplaces ).
+ */
+async function installClaudeCode(
+  sourceRoot: string,
+  pluginSpec: string
+): Promise<void> {
+  const root = resolvePath(sourceRoot);
+  const marketplaceName = pluginSpec.split('@')[1];
+  if (!marketplaceName) {
+    throw new Error(`Invalid plugin spec: ${pluginSpec}`);
+  }
+
+  let code = await runCommand('claude', [
+    'plugin',
+    'marketplace',
+    'add',
+    root,
+    '--scope',
+    'user',
+  ]);
+  if (code !== 0) {
+    process.stderr.write(
+      `warning: claude plugin marketplace add exited ${code} (if the marketplace is already registered, you can ignore this).\n`
+    );
+    code = await runCommand('claude', [
+      'plugin',
+      'marketplace',
+      'update',
+      marketplaceName,
+    ]);
+    if (code !== 0) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `claude plugin marketplace add/update failed (${code}). Try: claude plugin marketplace add ${root}`
+      );
+    }
+  }
+
+  code = await runCommand('claude', [
+    'plugin',
+    'install',
+    pluginSpec,
+    '--scope',
+    'user',
+  ]);
+  if (code !== 0) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `claude plugin install failed (${code}). Try: claude plugin install ${pluginSpec} --scope user`
+    );
+  }
+
+  process.stdout.write(
+    `Claude Code: installed ${pluginSpec} (user scope). Run /reload-plugins in Claude if needed.\n`
+  );
+  process.stdout.write(
+    `One-off without install: claude --plugin-dir ${root} (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins )\n`
+  );
+}
+
+async function installCursor(
+  sourceRoot: string,
+  destFolder: string
+): Promise<void> {
+  const home = homedir();
+  const destRoot =
+    process.env.CURSOR_PLUGINS_LOCAL ??
+    join(home, '.cursor', 'plugins', 'local');
+  const dest = join(destRoot, destFolder);
+  await mkdir(destRoot, { recursive: true });
+  await rm(dest, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  if (CURSOR_INSTALL_METHOD === 'copy') {
+    await cp(sourceRoot, dest, { recursive: true });
+  } else {
+    await symlink(sourceRoot, dest, 'dir');
+  }
+  process.stdout.write(`Cursor plugin installed to ${dest}\n`);
+}
+
+const installCmd = new Command()
+  .description('Install local agent tools.')
+  .arguments('<source:string>')
+  .type('agent', new EnumType(['cursor', 'claude']))
+  .option('-a, --agent <name:agent>', 'Target agent.', { default: 'cursor' })
+  .action(async ({ agent }, source: string) => {
+    const src = await resolvePluginSource(source);
+    if (agent === 'claude') {
+      const spec = await claudePluginSpecFromMarketplace(src);
+      return installClaudeCode(src, spec);
+    }
+    if (agent === 'cursor') {
+      const destFolder = await cursorDestFolderName(src);
+      return installCursor(src, destFolder);
+    }
+    throw new Error(`Unknown agent: ${agent}`);
+  });
+
+export default installCmd;
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/index.ts b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d725dc65b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/src/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env tsx
+
+import { Command } from '@cliffy/command';
+import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+import process from 'node:process';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+
+import installCmd from './commands/install.js';
+
+const pkg = JSON.parse(
+  await readFile(
+    join(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..', 'package.json'),
+    'utf8'
+  )
+) as { version: string; description: string };
+
+await new Command()
+  .name('agent-manager')
+  .version(pkg.version)
+  .description(pkg.description)
+  .command('install', installCmd)
+  .parse(process.argv.slice(2));
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/tsconfig.json b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/tsconfig.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6fc6e582d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/agent-manager/tsconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "target": "ES2022",
+    "module": "NodeNext",
+    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
+    "strict": true,
+    "skipLibCheck": true,
+    "verbatimModuleSyntax": true,
+    "noEmit": true,
+    "types": ["node"]
+  },
+  "include": ["src/**/*.ts"]
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..544751d64d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "gamut-ai-tools-templates",
+  "plugins": [
+    {
+      "name": "claude-plugin-template",
+      "source": "./"
+    }
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9ebf14124c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+{
+  "name": "claude-plugin-template",
+  "description": "Minimal example Claude Code plugin for the Gamut repo. Replace name and metadata when copying.",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
+  "author": {
+    "name": "Codecademy Engineers",
+    "email": "dev@codecademy.com"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c7ec7ca5b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/claude-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+name: example-template
+description: Placeholder skill for the Gamut Claude Code plugin template; replace when authoring a real skill.
+---
+
+# Example skill
+
+Use `skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md` with frontmatter `name` and `description`. Add optional scripts or references alongside this file as needed.
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e0ceac6d85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+{
+  "name": "cursor-plugin-template",
+  "displayName": "Cursor plugin template (Gamut)",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
+  "description": "Minimal example Cursor plugin for the Gamut repo. Replace name and paths when copying.",
+  "author": {
+    "name": "Codecademy Engineers",
+    "email": "dev@codecademy.com"
+  },
+  "license": "MIT",
+  "keywords": ["gamut", "example", "template"],
+  "rules": "./rules/",
+  "skills": "./skills/"
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/rules/example.mdc b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/rules/example.mdc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4f1ade302b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/rules/example.mdc
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+description: Example project rule for the Cursor plugin template (replace with real guidance).
+alwaysApply: false
+---
+
+# Example rule
+
+This file demonstrates where **rules** live in a Cursor plugin. Replace this content with conventions relevant to your project.
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..61b7219d3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/examples/templates/cursor-plugin/skills/example-template/SKILL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+name: example-template
+description: Placeholder skill for the Gamut Cursor plugin template; replace when authoring a real skill.
+---
+
+# Example skill
+
+Use this folder layout for skills: `skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md` with frontmatter `name` and `description`.
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/project.json b/tools/ai-tools/project.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6d80067c0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/project.json
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{
+  "name": "ai-tools",
+  "$schema": "../../node_modules/nx/schemas/project-schema.json",
+  "sourceRoot": "tools/ai-tools",
+  "projectType": "library",
+  "tags": ["scope:ai-tooling"],
+  "targets": {
+    "validate": {
+      "executor": "nx:run-commands",
+      "options": {
+        "commands": ["node tools/ai-tools/scripts/validate-manifests.mjs"],
+        "parallel": false
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tools/ai-tools/scripts/validate-manifests.mjs b/tools/ai-tools/scripts/validate-manifests.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c4d62a0cdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/ai-tools/scripts/validate-manifests.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+
+const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+const root = path.resolve(__dirname, '..');
+
+const manifests = [
+  path.join(
+    root,
+    'examples/templates/cursor-plugin/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json'
+  ),
+  path.join(
+    root,
+    'examples/templates/claude-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json'
+  ),
+];
+
+for (const file of manifests) {
+  const text = fs.readFileSync(file, 'utf8');
+  JSON.parse(text);
+  process.stdout.write(`OK ${path.relative(process.cwd(), file)}\n`);
+}