Bootstrap Process

When you run looplia init, the CLI bootstraps your workspace with plugins and skills from multiple sources. This page explains the complete bootstrap flow.

Overview

The bootstrap process has three main phases:

looplia init
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Copy Built-in Plugins        │
│    (looplia-core, looplia-writer)│
└─────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ 2. Install Default Sources      │
│    • Clone from GitHub          │
│    • Detect marketplace format  │
│    • Extract plugins            │
└─────────────────────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ 3. Compile Skill Catalog        │
│    • Scan local plugins         │
│    • Parse SKILL.md metadata    │
│    • Write skill-catalog.json   │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Phase 1: Copy Built-in Plugins

The CLI ships with two built-in plugins that are copied to your workspace:

Plugin	Purpose
`looplia-core`	Infrastructure — workflow executor, validator, registry loader
`looplia-writer`	Domain — content analysis skills (media-reviewer, idea-synthesis)

These are copied directly to ~/.looplia/ at the root level.

Phase 2: Install Default Sources

Looplia installs skills from two default marketplace sources:

Source	Repository
Anthropic Skills	github.com/anthropics/skills
ComposioHQ Skills	github.com/ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills

Installation Process

For each source, the following steps occur:

Clone — git clone --depth 1 to a temp directory
Detect Format — Check for .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
Extract Plugins — Split marketplace into individual plugins
Copy to Workspace — Write to ~/.looplia/plugins/
Register Source — Add entry to sources.json

Marketplace Format Detection

Looplia auto-detects which format a marketplace uses:

Format	Detection	Structure
Anthropic	Has `skills` array in plugin entries	One plugin entry → multiple skills
ComposioHQ	Has `source` path only	One plugin entry → one skill

Plugin Extraction Examples

Anthropic format — One plugin with multiple skills:

{
  "plugins": [{
    "name": "example-skills",
    "description": "Document processing skills",
    "skills": ["./skills/xlsx", "./skills/pdf", "./skills/docx"]
  }]
}

Creates:

~/.looplia/plugins/example-skills/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json
└── skills/
    ├── xlsx/
    ├── pdf/
    └── docx/

ComposioHQ format — Each plugin is a single skill:

{
  "plugins": [{
    "name": "brand-guidelines",
    "description": "Apply brand styling",
    "source": "./brand-guidelines"
  }]
}

Creates:

~/.looplia/plugins/brand-guidelines/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json
└── skills/
    └── brand-guidelines/

Phase 3: Compile Skill Catalog

After plugins are installed, the registry compiler scans all skills and builds skill-catalog.json.

Scanning Locations

The compiler scans skills from three locations:

~/.looplia/
├── looplia-core/skills/       # Built-in (sourceType: builtin)
├── looplia-writer/skills/     # Built-in (sourceType: builtin)
└── plugins/*/skills/          # Third-party (sourceType: thirdparty)

Metadata Extraction

For each skill directory, the compiler parses SKILL.md frontmatter:

---
name: xlsx
description: |
  Create and manipulate Excel spreadsheets with support for
  formulas, formatting, and data analysis.
category: generation
tools: Read, Write, Bash
model: claude-opus-4-5-20251101
inputless: false
---

Category Inference

If category is not specified in the frontmatter, looplia infers it from keywords:

Category	Keywords
`analysis`	review, analyze, scan
`generation`	generate, synthesis, create
`assembly`	assemble, document, compile
`validation`	validate, check
`search`	search, find
`orchestration`	workflow, execute, orchestrat
`utility`	(default)

Capability Inference

Capabilities are inferred from pattern matching:

Capability	Patterns
`media-processing`	media, video, audio, image
`content-analysis`	content, text, document
`structured-output`	json, schema, structured
`workflow-management`	workflow, orchestrat

Data Structures

sources.json

Located at ~/.looplia/registry/sources.json:

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "github:anthropics/skills",
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/anthropics/skills",
      "enabled": true,
      "priority": 50,
      "addedAt": "2026-01-07T12:00:00.000Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "github:ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills",
      "type": "github",
      "url": "https://github.com/ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills",
      "enabled": true,
      "priority": 50,
      "addedAt": "2026-01-07T12:00:00.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

skill-catalog.json

Located at ~/.looplia/registry/skill-catalog.json:

{
  "compiledAt": "2026-01-07T12:00:00.000Z",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "sources": [...],
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "xlsx",
      "title": "Xlsx",
      "description": "Create and manipulate spreadsheets",
      "plugin": "example-skills",
      "category": "generation",
      "capabilities": ["generation", "structured-output"],
      "source": "github:anthropics/skills",
      "sourceType": "thirdparty",
      "installed": true,
      "gitUrl": "https://github.com/anthropics/skills",
      "skillPath": "skills/xlsx"
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "totalSkills": 56,
    "byCategory": {
      "generation": 20,
      "analysis": 15,
      "assembly": 10,
      "utility": 11
    },
    "bySource": {
      "github:anthropics/skills": 42,
      "github:ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills": 14
    }
  }
}

Re-initialization

To update your workspace with the latest skills:

looplia init --yes

This will:

Re-download marketplace sources
Extract new/updated plugins
Recompile the skill catalog