Connect Agent to Manifest Observability Platform

Manifest Setup walks through connecting an agent to the Manifest observability platform, in a strict order to avoid hot-reload issues. It stops the gateway (claude gateway stop), installs the Manifest plugin (claude plugins install manifest), then walks the user through getting an API key from app.manifest.build - a key starting with mnfst_, obtained by creating an account and clicking "Connect Agent" - validating its format before use. It writes the key into the plugin config (claude config set plugins.entries.manifest.config.apiKey), asks whether a custom OTLP endpoint is needed, defaulting to https://app.manifest.build/api/v1/otlp if not, restarts the gateway (claude gateway install), and verifies success by checking the local skill directory's logs for [manifest] Observability pipeline active after a 3-second wait.

Use it when a user wants to set up observability or telemetry for their agent via Manifest specifically, connect to Manifest for monitoring, configure a Manifest API key or custom endpoint, or troubleshoot a Manifest plugin connection. Don't use it for general observability design, that's observability-engineer, for building custom dashboards or alerting rules, or if the user isn't on the Manifest platform at all.

Input: a Manifest API key, mnfst_-prefixed, obtained from the user's Manifest account, and optionally a custom OTLP endpoint URL for self-hosted setups. Output: a running gateway with the Manifest plugin configured and active, confirmed by the [manifest] Observability pipeline active log line. The skill never logs or echoes the API key in plain text after it's configured, and validates the key's mnfst_ prefix before writing it.

• Claude's plugin and gateway CLI (claude plugins install/disable, claude config set, claude gateway stop/install)
• Manifest's OTLP observability endpoint, default https://app.manifest.build/api/v1/otlp, or a self-hosted URL
• Conflicts with the built-in diagnostics-otel plugin if both register OpenTelemetry - disable it if you see duplicate registration errors

Its troubleshooting table covers the failures most likely to come up: a missing apiKey means re-running the configuration step, an invalid key format means it doesn't start with mnfst_, a connection-refused error means the endpoint is unreachable and worth checking whether the user self-hosts, and a duplicate OTel registration error is fixed by disabling the conflicting built-in diagnostics-otel plugin. Its stated best practices: always stop the gateway before changing configuration, leave the default endpoint alone unless self-hosting, and check gateway logs first when debugging any plugin issue.

Anyone setting up or troubleshooting an agent's connection to the Manifest observability platform, including self-hosted Manifest instances.