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Set up your coding agent

The fastest way to add Bird to your agent is the setup prompt. Paste it once. The agent installs the bird CLI and Bird's skills, signs you in, and proves the setup by sending a test email. If you prefer manual setup, follow the per-client steps.

Copy this prompt into your agent

Code example
Bird is an infrastructure platform for sending email to your users. Set Bird up for me, end to end.
1. Install the Bird CLI: run `curl -fsSL https://cli.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 offers a tailored setup prompt for Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. The per-client steps explain how skill installation differs.

Or set it up manually, per client

Every client starts the same way; only the skills step differs.
Code example
curl -fsSL https://cli.bird.com/install.sh | sh   # install the CLI
bird auth login                                            # sign in (browser, no API key)

Claude Code

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

Codex

Code example
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 fetching them from github.com/messagebird/bird-ai and writing them into .cursor/rules/ as .mdc files. To do it by hand, add the messagebird/bird-ai marketplace under Settings > Plugins, or write the skills into .cursor/rules/ yourself.

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

Copy the skill into the agent's skills directory:
Code example
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 you do not keep an API key or secret in any config. bird auth status reports the active workspace, region, and granted scopes.

What the skills give your agent

SkillWhat it does
Send and inspect emailSend a message, then confirm whether it delivered or bounced
Sending domainsFind a verified sender, or run the create-and-verify loop
Webhook endpointsRegister, test, inspect, and delete outbound endpoints

Connect the MCP server instead

For clients that call tools instead of running a shell, connect to Bird's hosted MCP server at https://mcp.bird.com. This includes Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, and mobile clients. Authenticate after adding the URL; unauthenticated clients can list Bird's tools, but every call fails. Each host uses a different trigger: Claude Code uses /mcp > bird > Authenticate, Claude Desktop uses Connect, and Cursor uses Needs login. See the per-client connection steps. The MCP server guide also covers local stdio.

Next steps