dunnlab

DunnLab Code

This repo has two purposes:

• Documenting our best practices, onboarding, and instruction on using AI in our research.
• Shared skills, hooks, and commands for the Dunn Lab. The focus is in Claude Code.

View the full documentation site

Installation

Option A: Install from the marketplace (recommended)

Register the repo as a marketplace, then install the plugin:

claude plugin marketplace add caseywdunn/dunnlab_code
claude plugin install dunnlab-code

This pulls the plugin from GitHub and caches it locally. Works anywhere — including inside dev containers. To update after changes are pushed, run claude plugin update dunnlab-code.

Option B: Per-session loading with --plugin-dir

If you want to load the plugin for a single session without installing it permanently (useful during development or testing):

git clone https://github.com/caseywdunn/dunnlab_code.git ~/repos/dunnlab_code
claude --plugin-dir ~/repos/dunnlab_code

This loads the plugin for that session alongside any other installed plugins — it does not replace them. The flag is repeatable, so you can load multiple plugin directories at once (e.g., --plugin-dir ~/pluginA --plugin-dir ~/pluginB). If a --plugin-dir plugin shares a name with an installed marketplace plugin, the local copy takes precedence for that session.

There is no way to specify --plugin-dir for the Claude VS Code extension. But you can run claude --plugin-dir within the VS Code terminal to use the plugin there.

Because --plugin-dir reads directly from the directory, changes take effect immediately on the next session — no update command needed.

Using skills and commands

Once the plugin is installed, everything is available automatically — no extra activation steps.

• Skills load based on context. For example, the dunnlab-defaults skill activates when you start a new analysis script or set up a project. You can also invoke skills explicitly as /dunnlab-code:dunnlab-defaults.
• Slash commands are available immediately. Try /dunnlab-check to verify the plugin is working.
• Hooks run automatically in response to events (once configured).

To see what's available, run:

/dunnlab-check

You can disable the plugin without uninstalling it:

/plugin disable dunnlab-code
/plugin enable dunnlab-code

Updating the plugin

How you update depends on how you installed it.

Marketplace installs

If you installed via a marketplace, update from within Claude Code:

/plugin update dunnlab-code@dunnlab

Marketplaces auto-update by default, so in most cases you don't need to do anything — new versions are picked up automatically.

Persistent local installs (plugin add)

Pull the latest changes, then re-register the plugin to update the cache:

cd ~/repos/dunnlab_code
git pull
claude plugin add ~/repos/dunnlab_code

Per-session installs (--plugin-dir)

Pull the latest changes and restart Claude Code:

cd ~/repos/dunnlab_code
git pull

Changes are picked up on the next session automatically — no separate update command needed.

What's included

Directory	Contents
skills/	Reusable Claude Code skills for lab workflows
commands/	Slash commands for common tasks
hooks/	Event-driven automation hooks
docs/	GitHub Pages site with setup guides and lab practices

Skills

• dunnlab-defaults — Lab-wide coding conventions: preferred languages, file naming, project structure
• dunnlab-devcontainer — Add a .devcontainer/ configuration for secure, reproducible Claude Code development environments
• example-skill — A template to copy when creating new skills

Commands

• /dunnlab-check — Verifies the plugin is loaded and lists available skills

Full documentation, including onboarding instructions and lab conventions, is available on the Pages site.