Set up your library

You turn the knowledge your agents already use into books, add marketplace books that match your work, and create a shelf for your project.

A new library is empty, so the agent has nothing to read. Most users already wrote knowledge for their agents: skills, rule files, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md sections and prompt files. This knowledge is short and scattered. A book gives it structure and room for depth.

Before you start#

• Trove is installed and you are signed in (see Install).
• You have at least one skill, rule file or prompt file for your agent.
• You are in the repository you want to set up.

Steps#

1. Ask your agent to find your agent knowledge. It looks in your skills, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursor/rules and prompt files.
2. Check the topic groups. The agent groups the knowledge by topic and shows the groups. It writes nothing until you approve them.
3. Approve the books. For each group you approve, the book writer writes one book. Each chapter has a short explanation and then a short "Rules for agents" part. The skill stays where it is. The agent does not delete or shorten it.
4. Pick marketplace books. The agent browses the marketplace for books that match your project and your work. It tells you why each book helps. It adds only the books you pick.
5. Create a project shelf. Ask your agent: "Create a Trove shelf for this project with the books that matter here." The agent creates the shelf and writes .trove/shelf.json. Commit that file so every teammate and agent reads the same books first.
6. Ask explicitly when it matters. The most reliable way to use your new books is to tell your agent: "Search my Trove library for how we handle retries." That starts the librarian. The librarian picks the books and pages, and it starts the readers on its own. Trove also has automatic checks (setting skill.planMode, default always). We are actively working on making the librarian start automatically and reliably, but today you should not rely on it. See Plan mode and Auto mode.

Prompt to paste#

Set up my Trove library from what I already have.

1. Find my agent knowledge: skills (~/.claude/skills and plugin skills), AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursor/rules and any prompt files in this project.
2. Group them by topic. Show me the groups before you write anything.
3. For each group I approve, use the book writer to write one book: a chapter per topic, each chapter with a short explanation and then a short "Rules for agents" part.
4. Look at this project and at what I work on. Browse the Trove marketplace and suggest 3-5 books that match. Tell me why each one helps. Add only the ones I pick.
5. Create a shelf for this project with the books that matter here.

What you will see#

First the agent lists your agent knowledge in groups and asks you to approve them. Then the book writer reports each new book. Next the agent shows a short list of marketplace books, each with one line on why it fits. It adds only the books you pick. At the end it creates the shelf and writes the shelf file. The agent prints:

✓ Created shelf 'Billing service' (slug: billing-service)
✓ Wrote ./.trove/shelf.json (shelf 'billing-service', 0 books)
  Commit this file so your team and agents share the same shelf contract.

The agent then adds the books to the shelf.

✓ Added 2 items to 'Billing service'.

Want your agent to follow good practice with your books? Ask it: "Read How to Use Trove in my Trove library and follow it."

Direct CLI#

Your agent runs these through the trove command. You can run them yourself in a terminal, but asking your agent is the recommended way: it picks the right flags, waits for processing and checks the result.

See the CLI reference.

Next#

• Research a topic
• Shelves
• Write a book with your agent