Pants Clawthor Plugin

Optional Pants backend that compiles Clawthor plugins as part of your build.

Use this when: You define plugins in BUILD files and want automatic compilation via Pants.

Don't use if: You just want to compile manually with clawthor compile (use the gem directly instead).

Installation

1. Install clawthor gem

gem install clawthor
which clawthor    # Verify it's available

2. Add to pants.toml

[GLOBAL]
plugins = [
    "jaymd96-pants-clawthor==0.1.0",
]

Requirements

• Pants 2.18+
• Python 3.9+
• Ruby 3.0+
• clawthor gem 0.3.0+

Quick Start

1. Create a BUILD file

# plugins/my_plugin/BUILD
claude_plugin(
    name="my_plugin",
    definition="definition.rb",
)

2. Create definition.rb

# plugins/my_plugin/definition.rb
workspace :my_plugin do
  version "1.0.0"
  author "My Team"
end

skill :example do
  description "Example skill"
end

command :hello do
  description "Say hello"
  template { prompt "Say hello" }
end

3. Build

pants build //plugins/my_plugin:my_plugin

That's it! Generated plugin is in plugins/my_plugin/output/.

Target Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
definition	string	required	Path to definition.rb
output_dir	string	output	Where to generate files
marketplace	bool	false	Use marketplace layout?

Examples

Basic plugin

# plugins/docs/BUILD
claude_plugin(
    name="docs",
    definition="definition.rb",
)

With modules

# plugins/dev/BUILD
claude_plugin(
    name="dev",
    definition="definition.rb",
    output_dir="plugin",
)

# plugins/dev/definition.rb
workspace :dev_tools do
  version "1.0.0"
end

require_relative './modules/planning'
use :planning

Marketplace layout

claude_plugin(
    name="release",
    definition="definition.rb",
    marketplace=True,
)

Reusing Claudo modules

Copy Claudo modules into your project:

cp ../baseline/modules/planning.rb plugins/my_plugin/

Then use them:

require_relative './modules/planning'

workspace :my_plugin do
  use :planning
end

Troubleshooting

"clawthor command not found"

1. Install: gem install clawthor
2. Verify: which clawthor
3. If using rbenv/rvm, check Ruby version: ruby --version

Compilation fails

Check definition file manually:

cd plugins/my_plugin
clawthor compile definition.rb output/

Path issues

Make sure definition is relative to the BUILD file:

claude_plugin(
    name="my_plugin",
    definition="definition.rb",  # Same dir as BUILD
)

Development

Setup

cd pants-plugin
hatch env create
hatch run test

Test your backend

hatch run test

Format code

hatch run fmt

How It Works

This backend:

1. Takes a definition.rb file
2. Runs clawthor compile automatically
3. Generates plugin files
4. Makes them available to Pants

That's all—it's a simple bridge between Pants and Clawthor.

Related

• Clawthor Gem — The DSL compiler
• Baseline Plugin — Reference & modules
• Clawthor Monorepo — Overview
• Pants Docs — Build system

License

MIT — See ../clawthor/LICENSE