tilt

Tilt Skill for Claude Code

A Claude Code Plugin that teaches Claude how to manage Tilt dev environments using the tilt CLI directly — no MCP server, no Docker container, no background process.

Why a Skill instead of an MCP Server?

	MCP Server	Skill (this plugin)
Token cost	Tool schemas loaded every session	Only a description loaded; full content on-demand
Runtime	Persistent subprocess or Docker container	None — Claude runs tilt CLI directly
Dependencies	Python + FastMCP + Docker	Just tilt in your PATH
Distribution	Docker image (320MB+) or pip	Git repo (~10KB of markdown)

The core insight: all the intelligence (when to check logs, how to debug, what status means) lives in markdown. The tilt CLI is the only "plumbing" needed, and Claude already has Bash access to run it.

Install

# Add this repo as a marketplace
/plugin marketplace add rrmistry/tilt-skill

# Install the tilt skill
/plugin install tilt@tilt-skill

Or for local development:

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/tilt-skill

What It Does

Once installed, Claude can:

• List resources — tilt get uiresource -o json with health status derivation
• View logs — with native --tail, --level, --since, --source flags
• Describe resources — detailed config, conditions, and build history
• Trigger rebuilds — force fresh builds on any resource
• Enable/disable resources — including --only mode for resource optimization
• Wait for conditions — Ready or UpToDate, with terminal-state pre-checks
• Debug failures — systematic debugging workflows in workflows.md

The skill auto-activates when you mention Tilt resources, or invoke manually with /tilt:tilt.

Example Use Cases

1. Code-and-verify loop

"Fix the login bug in auth.py, then check the backend resource logs in Tilt to make sure it compiled and the tests pass."

Claude edits the code, then uses the skill to run tilt logs backend --level error --tail 50 and tilt wait uiresource/test --for=condition=Ready --timeout=60s to verify the fix deployed cleanly.

2. Debug a failing resource

"The backend resource is failing in Tilt. Help me figure out why."

Claude runs tilt describe uiresource backend and tilt logs backend --level error --tail 200, identifies the root cause from build errors or runtime crashes, and suggests a fix.

3. Focus your dev environment

"I'm only working on the frontend today. Disable everything else to save resources."

Claude runs tilt enable --only frontend to keep only the frontend resource active and disables all others, freeing up CPU and memory.

4. Health check before a PR

"Are all Tilt resources healthy? I want to make sure everything is green before I push."

Claude lists all resources with tilt get uiresource -o json, derives health status for each, and reports any that are in error or updating state.

5. Monitor a deployment after changes

"I just changed the Dockerfile. Watch the backend resource and let me know when it's ready."

Claude triggers a rebuild with tilt trigger backend, then waits with tilt wait uiresource/backend --for=condition=Ready --timeout=120s, and reports back with the final status and any error logs.

6. Analyze log patterns

"Are there any recurring errors in the api-gateway logs from the last 10 minutes?"

Claude runs tilt logs api-gateway --since 10m and analyzes the output for error patterns, stack traces, and frequency.

Multi-Instance Support

Append --port {port_number} to any command for non-default Tilt instances:

tilt get uiresource -o json --port 10351

Prerequisites

• Tilt installed and in your PATH
• A running Tilt instance (tilt up)
• Claude Code CLI

Related

• tilt-mcp — Full MCP server for Tilt (Docker/pip, works with any MCP client)
• Tilt — The dev environment orchestrator

License

MIT