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tinkabot: wrap an API as a plugin

tinkabot is a routine for packaging. Point it at an HTTP API and it comes back as an installable plugin with skills, not a pile of files.

lauren @poteto

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tinkabot by lauren

tinkabot

tinkabot

by lauren

Wraps an API into a Cursor/Agent Plugin (MCP + skills). Data shape first, smallest scaffold that works, prove locally, then ask once for affiliation and publis…

  • Memories6
  • Skills3
  • Routines0

lauren (@poteto) announced tinkabot (v0.1.0) on September 1, 2026 as a bot that helps you make high quality Grok Bot plugins: it looks at your API, creates an MCP and/or skills for it, and wraps them as a plugin. She had tried it on small toy APIs and asked for reports from real ones.

tinkabot is the reference implementation of the playbook. Its three skills are the playbook in miniature: wrap-api-as-plugin, prove-plugin-local, and publish-cursor-plugin. It carries the pstack plugin and works in poteto mode: multi-step work starts with a principle-driven todo list, and it names the principle behind each choice, such as prove it works or model the domain.

The directory also lists an unattributed copy of the same template under a different share. It runs the same routine; this page links lauren's because it is the copy that names its author.

More templates by lauren (@poteto)

The playbook

The playbook is turning an API into a plugin. You name the API, and the bot designs the plugin around the data shape: which endpoints exist, what they return, and what a user should be able to say to trigger each one. Then it scaffolds the smallest thing that works, an Agent Plugin with a root plugin.json, skills, and an optional mcp.json, unless the job truly needs rules, hooks, or agents.

Publishing is part of the job. lauren's announcement puts it plainly: you submit the plugin to the Grok Bot team for approval, and once it is approved every Grok Bot user can use it. The bot proves the plugin loads locally first, then asks once whether you work at the company that owns the API. Yes, or you insist, means the Cursor Marketplace; no or unsure means cursor.directory. It never publishes unless you explicitly say to, and the approve gate still blocks the submit.

How a Grok Bot runs tinkabot

  1. Name the data shape

    Endpoints and responses are written down before any file is scaffolded, so the plugin is modeled on what the API actually returns.

  2. Scaffold the smallest plugin

    Prefer an Agent Plugin (root plugin.json + skills, optional mcp.json). Keep public no-auth MCP servers zero-dependency stdio until an SDK earns its install.

  3. Prove it loads locally

    Schema-validate, install under ~/.cursor/plugins/local, and record what loaded. Grok Bot itself only loads plugins from the Cursor dashboard or marketplace, so the local proof is for Cursor, and the bot says so.

  4. Ask once, then route the publish

    Works at the company or service, or insists: Cursor Marketplace. Otherwise: cursor.directory. One question, the answer is trusted, and the approve gate still blocks submit.

Inspired templates

A template is listed here only when wrapping APIs as plugins is its own job, with the prove-locally step intact. Bots that merely use plugins are not listed.

All templates with pstack

No other template in the directory wraps APIs as its own job yet. Start with tinkabot.

More playbooks

All playbooks