Ask The W

Coding plugin

Install Ask The W in Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor.

The plugin gives your coding agent one compact view of the project before it starts: the W Card, the North Star, outcomes, open decisions, and current moves. Local work stays local until you ask to push a decision, finish a move, or send one update. It also reads and writes Workspace docs, drafts Wire messages without sending them, and can request a World competitive analysis or a Whiteboard map. The website cannot install it for you. Claude Code and Codex install from their plugin marketplaces. Cursor uses MCP in Customize until a native Ask The W Cursor plugin exists.

A machine-readable summary of the suite is at askthew.com/llms.txt.

  1. Step 1

    Codex plugin: add the marketplace

    Confirm the install in the Codex Plugins UI.

    In the Codex session

    /plugins

    From the terminal

    codex plugin marketplace add AskTheWAI/codex-plugin --ref main
    codex plugin add askthew

    In the Codex session, open `/plugins` and install Ask The W from the `askthew` marketplace. From the terminal, run the marketplace add command, then `codex plugin add askthew`.

  2. Step 2

    Open a session in this project and connect it

    You need a paid Ask The W project. Sign in on Ask The W, open the confirmation link, choose that project, and confirm the code from your coding agent. When the coding agent first uses Ask The W, it should call askthew_start_workspace_bind. Open the browser confirmation URL, confirm the displayed code, and choose the paid project. The agent should not ask for your email or a six-digit code.

    • Browser confirmation URL
    • Displayed code confirmation
    • Paid project

    After connection, project context and later writes stay on that paid project for the folder you opened (`scopeKey`). The coding agent itself is not the project.

  3. Step 3

    Restart the coding agent

    After the install finishes, close and reopen the coding agent so the new MCP tools load. In Claude Code, `/reload-plugins` can load them in an already-open session.

Having trouble?

If Ask The W does not appear after adding the marketplace, run `codex plugin marketplace upgrade askthew`, reopen `/plugins`, then install Ask The W from the `askthew` marketplace. If Codex still shows an old Ask The W card, uninstall Ask The W and install it again from that marketplace.

Need the longer operating guide? See Install the Ask The W Coding Plugin.