Pull from another plugin
A pull copies skills, agents, MCP servers, plugin files and rules from one plugin into another, after you have reviewed every change. A plugin is a named bundle of what your AI coding tools work with: skills, agents, rules, MCP servers and plugin files.
A pull adds and replaces items in the plugin that receives them. It deletes nothing from that plugin and leaves the source plugin as it is. The source is one of the following.
| Source | What it is | Where you can pull from it |
|---|---|---|
| This project | Another plugin of the same project, including your project's copy of the standard plugin. | Web UI, /atn:manage |
| Another project | A plugin of another project you are a member of, in any role. | Web UI |
| Library | An entry of the plugin library, the shared catalogue of plugins that projects have published. | Web UI. From /atn:manage, you merge the entry. |
Start a pull in the web UI
Pull when one plugin already has a skill, an agent or rules that another plugin should have too, for example to bring the skills of a "Security review" plugin into your project's copy of the standard plugin. You need the owner or editor role in the project of the plugin that receives the content.
- In the project's sidebar, open Plugins and select the card of the plugin that should receive the content.
- On the blueprint, open the menu of the plugin at the centre and select Pull from….
- In the dialog Pull into, choose where to pull from: This project, Another project or Library.
- If you chose Another project, choose the project.
- Choose the source plugin. If you chose Library, search for the entry and choose it.
- Select Continue.
The review page opens. For the two plugins of the example its title is Pull "Security review" into "Athenode". Nothing has been written at this point. With Library as the source, the review page is the one for merging a library entry, which the plugin library describes.
Review the items a pull adds and replaces
The review page has one section each for Skills, Agents, MCP servers and Files. Within a section, every item of the source plugin is a new item, a conflict or an identical item.
| Group | What it holds | Your choice |
|---|---|---|
| New items | Items your plugin does not have. | All are selected. Deselect the ones you do not want, or use Select all and Select none. |
| Conflicts | Items your plugin has under the same name, or files at the same path, with different content. | Keep mine, which is preselected, or Replace with the source plugin's one. |
| Identical items | Items that are already the same in your plugin. | None. Nothing is written for them. |
To see how a conflicting item differs, select Compare. The comparison shows your plugin's version on the left and the source plugin's version on the right.
Some conflicts are marked Cannot be replaced, with the reason beside them. This happens, for example, when one of your agents defines an MCP server with the same name, or when a path is a file in one plugin and a folder in the other. Such an item stays as it is in your plugin.
MCP servers pulled from another project arrive without the values that were typed in directly there. The review page marks those servers Values cleared: their environment variables and headers come over with empty values, and ${VAR} references are kept. Fill the values in after the pull, in the MCP servers of your plugin. Between two plugins of one project, MCP servers are copied with their values.
Choose what happens to the rules
A plugin has one rules text, so the rules are one choice for the whole pull. When both plugins have rules and they differ, choose what happens to yours.
| Option | Result |
|---|---|
| Keep mine | Your rules stay as they are. This is preselected. |
| Append the source plugin's rules | The source plugin's rules are added after yours, under a heading with the source plugin's name. |
| Replace with the source plugin's rules | The source plugin's rules take the place of yours. |
Compare shows the two texts side by side. Rules hold up to 50,000 characters, and appending is unavailable when the combined text would be longer. When the two rules texts are identical, or the source plugin has none, the page says so and nothing is written. Rules in a plugin covers editing the rules afterwards.
Apply the pull
The foot of the review page sums up your choices: how many items will be added, how many will be replaced and what happens to the rules.
- Check the summary against what you intended.
- Select Pull.
- If your choices replace anything, read the list in the dialog Replace these items? and select Replace and apply.
Warning
Replacing an item or the rules overwrites your version of it. This cannot be undone.
The web UI confirms that the source was pulled into your plugin, and the blueprint shows the added items.
A pull is applied as a whole.
If either plugin changes while the review page is open, the page loads the preview again and asks you to check your choices and apply once more.
If the plugin that received the content is installed in a local project directory, run athenode init there to bring the pulled items into your AI tools, and follow the steps init prints under "Still to do in your tools:". Install a plugin describes the plan init shows.
Work with pulled items afterwards
A pulled item is a copy that belongs to your plugin. Changing it later does not change the source plugin, and changes to the source do not reach your copy. This holds between two plugins of the same project as well.
A skill arrives with all of its bundle files. A skill that was imported from a repository keeps its connection to that repository, so you can go on updating it in your plugin.
A pull is a one-time copy. The plugin shows no update notice for pulled content, and to get later changes from the source you pull again and review the conflicts.
In your project's copy of the standard plugin, a built-in skill, agent or the rules that you replace through a pull counts as changed by you. It then keeps your version when Athenode updates the standard plugin, as the standard Athenode plugin describes.
Pull from your AI tool
From your AI tool, ask /atn:manage to pull one plugin of the project into another, in full or only the items you name. It shows you the new, conflicting and identical items first and asks before it replaces anything.
Your AI agent previews a pull with the tool plugins_pull_preview of the Athenode MCP server and applies it with plugins_pull. Without decisions a pull adds everything that is new, replaces nothing and keeps your rules. To select items, replace conflicts or change the rules choice, the agent passes the preview back with your choices. If either plugin changed since the preview, nothing is written and it previews again.
A pull into the installed plugin from /atn:manage updates your local files in the same step. It works with the plugins of the connected project.