Epik

You say it. We make it.

Epik is a software-design partner that turns a conversation into working code. Talk through what you want to build; Epik writes the plan up as GitHub issues, then starts builds that write the code, commit it, and open a pull request for you to review. There is nothing to babysit: the work runs on GitHub, and you check in whenever you like.

Layout

• mcp/ — EpikMCP, the GitHub mechanism: an MCP server that authors the issue graph, reads status, and carries Epik's prompts.

• plugin/ — the epik Claude Code plugin, the policy layer: skills, hooks, and the declaration of the EpikMCP server.

• website/ — the static Epik website, deployed to GitHub Pages on every push to main that passes CI.

Related MCP server: GitHub CLI MCP Server

Installing and uninstalling

Installing Epik is all that has to happen before Epik can speak. Everything after that — checking your GitHub sign-in, setting a repository up, configuring builds — Epik does itself, in conversation.

Install in Claude Desktop or Cowork

Epik installs as a one-click extension. There is no config file to edit and no Python or command-line tooling to set up.

You need a GitHub account, a current version of Claude Desktop, and the gh CLI signed in (gh auth login) — that is how Epik acts on GitHub as you.

1. Download the .mcpb file from the latest release.

2. Double-click it, or drag it onto the Claude Desktop window. The extension installs itself.

3. Start a new conversation.

To update later, install the newer .mcpb the same way.

(No release published yet? Until the first one lands, the bundle can be built from this repository — see mcp/mcpb/.)

Install in Claude Code

You need a GitHub account, Claude Code (current version), the gh CLI signed in (gh auth login), and uv — its uvx command runs the EpikMCP server for you (plus git, which you almost certainly already have). Then, inside a Claude Code session:

/plugin marketplace add epik-agent/Epik
/plugin install epik@epik
/reload-plugins

(epik-agent/Epik is this repository; the doubled epik@epik is plugin@marketplace, both named in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json.)

To update later: /plugin marketplace update epik then /reload-plugins.

Last step: summon Epik

You know Epik is installed because you can summon it.

Epik introduces itself: "Hello, I'm Epik." If it didn't say hello, you aren't talking to Epik.

From there, everything is dialogue. One command is worth knowing: /epik:init-repository sets a repository up for Epik, or repairs one that has drifted — safe to run any time, and running it on a healthy project is how you check. (In Claude Desktop and Cowork it is the Set up a repository for Epik prompt.)

Uninstalling

~/.epik-mcp/ is only a cache; delete it whenever you like and Epik will rebuild it. Uninstalling never touches your own settings in ~/.epik/.

Uninstalling Epik from a machine does not remove Epik from a project. A repository Epik has set up keeps its settings, its build workflow, and its secrets, and it will offer to install Epik for the next person who clones it and trusts the folder. That is intended: what got set up is the project, not your laptop.

How it works

The work happens on GitHub, not on your computer. When you launch a build, Epik starts a GitHub Action — a program GitHub runs on its own computers. Nothing runs on your machine, and nothing depends on your chat staying open. Your laptop can go to sleep, run out of battery, or be closed for the night; the build carries on without you.

GitHub is the dashboard. There is no separate Epik app, website, or status page to check. Everything Epik does shows up on GitHub as it happens:

• progress comments on the issue,

• commits on a branch,

• a pull request when the work is ready for a look,

• and the Action's live log, for anyone who wants the play-by-play.

Watching Epik work means looking at GitHub — from any browser, phone included. When you ask Epik for a status in chat, it is reading that same GitHub state back to you; the issue and the pull request are always the source of truth.

There is nothing to reconnect to. Because the build was never attached to a session of yours, there is no lost connection to recover. To catch up after being away, open the issue or the pull request. The one thing Epik always leaves for a human is the review: the pull request is where you decide what merges.

While a build runs, you can close the chat, start another conversation, follow along on your phone, or ignore it entirely until the pull request arrives.

Troubleshooting the install

Epik handles problems that arise once it can speak. Only failures of the install itself need this section:

Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add fails with JSON Parse error Claude Code's own marketplace registry is corrupt (often a stray trailing comma). Check python3 -m json.tool ~/.claude/plugins/known_marketplaces.json and fix the syntax it points at. If it says the name epik is already in use, /plugin marketplace remove epik and add it again.

Claude Desktop: Epik never appears after installing the extension Check Settings → Extensions to confirm the extension is enabled, then start a fresh conversation — extensions are picked up when a conversation begins. If it still doesn't appear, the desktop app's logs are in ~/Library/Logs/Claude/ on macOS.