Set up your coding agent

The fastest way to get Bird into your agent is to hand it the prompt below. Paste it once and the agent installs the bird CLI, signs you in, and installs Bird's skills, then proves it works by sending a test email. Nothing for you to run by hand. Prefer to do it yourself? The per-client steps are below.

Copy this prompt into your agent

Codebeispiel

Bird is an infrastructure platform that makes it easy to send email to your users. Set Bird up for me, end to end.
1. Install the Bird CLI: run `curl -fsSL https://cli.platform.bird.com/install.sh | sh`.
2. Sign me in: run `bird auth login` and open the browser link for me.
3. Install Bird's skills so you know the workflows: add the bird-ai marketplace (github.com/messagebird/bird-ai) and install the "bird" plugin using this client's plugin commands.
4. Confirm who I am: run `bird whoami` — it prints the email of the account you're acting as.
5. Send me a test email so I see it land in my own inbox: use my address from `bird whoami` as the recipient, send from onboarding@messagebird.dev, then confirm delivery with `bird email get`. Subject: "Your Bird account is ready". Body: "You're set up and ready to send. This email is the proof. Cheers, The Bird team".
Then let's discuss next steps, given what Bird can do.

The home page has per-agent buttons (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) that each set you up with a tailored version of this prompt; the skills install differs per client (see below).

Or set it up manually, per client

Every client starts the same way; only the skills step differs.

Codebeispiel

curl -fsSL https://cli.platform.bird.com/install.sh | sh   # install the CLI
bird auth login                                            # sign in (browser, no API key)

Claude Code

Codebeispiel

claude plugin marketplace add messagebird/bird-ai
claude plugin install bird@bird-ai

Codex

Codebeispiel

codex plugin marketplace add messagebird/bird-ai
codex plugin add bird@bird-ai

Cursor

The home-page Cursor button opens Cursor with the setup prompt prefilled (a prompt deeplink); review it and send. The prompt installs Bird's skills by copying the bird-cli skill into .agents/skills/, which Cursor 2.4+ reads as a native Agent Skill. To do it by hand, clone github.com/messagebird/bird-ai and copy plugins/bird/skills/bird-cli into .agents/skills/bird-cli.

Any other agent (Zed, opencode, Amp, Goose, pi, Cline, …)

Copy the skill into the agent's skills directory:

Codebeispiel

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/messagebird/bird-ai /tmp/bird-ai
mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r /tmp/bird-ai/plugins/bird/skills/bird-cli .agents/skills/bird-cli

Most agents read .agents/skills/; Cline uses .clinerules/skills/. This is optional: the bird CLI works without it.

Authenticate

bird auth login runs a browser OAuth flow scoped to one workspace, so there is no API key and no secret in any config. bird auth status reports the active workspace, region, and granted scopes.

What the skills give your agent

Skill	What it does
Send and inspect email	Send a message, then confirm whether it delivered or bounced
Sending domains	Find a verified sender, or run the create-and-verify loop
Webhook endpoints	Register, test, inspect, and delete outbound endpoints

Connect the MCP server instead

If your client calls tools instead of running a shell (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, mobile), point it at Bird's hosted MCP server at https://mcp.platform.bird.com. The full reference, including the local-stdio option, is in the MCP server guide.

Go deeper

CLI for agents: the bird CLI's agent contract.
Agent skills: what each skill teaches, and the per-client support matrix.
MCP server: the hosted endpoint and tool surface.