# DeepCell in Claude Code

Install the plugin, and Claude Code builds models and memos that keep the assumptions, evidence, and math behind every conclusion.

Source: https://beta.deepcell.net/product/claude-code.md

## CLI or MCP — choose once

DeepCell speaks two protocols to the same service. Which one you want depends on a single thing: whether your agent has a shell.

| Your agent | Use | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Claude Code, Cowork, or your own terminal | The CLI — this page | A shell means every command is available: sign-in, the Excel and PowerPoint exports, and the whole clone / pull / push / commit / merge history. |
| claude.ai, Manus, and other web agents | The MCP server | Nowhere to run a CLI. The server wraps the same commands as one tool and blocks the ones that need a browser or a working copy. |

One line to remember: shell → CLI, no shell → MCP. Setting up the MCP path instead? That lives on the Connect page.

## 1. Install the plugin

Run these inside Claude Code. The install opens a details view where you choose the scope; the reload activates the plugin in the session you are already in.

```bash
/plugin marketplace add deepcell-ai/deepcell-plugins
/plugin install deepcell@deepcell
/reload-plugins
```

Later, pull new versions with:

```bash
/plugin marketplace update deepcell
/plugin update deepcell@deepcell
```

## 2. Install the CLI

The plugin drives the deepcell CLI rather than bundling it. One command installs it, puts it on PATH and verifies it — on Windows, macOS or Linux, with or without pip. Ask Claude to run this for you, or run it yourself:

macOS / Linux
```bash
curl -LsSf https://beta.deepcell.net/install.sh | sh
```

Windows (PowerShell)
```powershell
irm https://beta.deepcell.net/install.ps1 | iex
```

Then check the environment in one command — it reports the version, whether the server is reachable, who you are, and which workspace is active. There is no sign-in step first: the CLI works anonymously until something needs an account.

```bash
deepcell doctor
```

## 3. Start with the orchestrator

The deepcell skill is the entry point. Claude reaches for it on its own when a request needs a model or a memo that has to hold up, and you can call it directly:

```bash
/deepcell:deepcell
```

Then say what you want built — a goal and its constraints, not a procedure:

> Build a three-year DCF for Acme from the filings in ./filings. Keep the growth and margin assumptions where I can change them, and record why each one is what it is.

The first thing it does is look: deepcell --help for the commands, deepcell guide for the format and the modeling. It does not guess a flag or a tag. Work big enough to own a document goes to the deepcell-builder agent, which finishes it end to end and reports back.

Come back the same way. Change an assumption and everything downstream reruns; ask what a conclusion rests on and the answer is already in the file, because it was written while the work was being formed.

## What the plugin adds

| Component | Name | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Skill | deepcell | The entry point — the same identity and quality bar the hosted DeepCell orchestrator runs on: what the work is, when it is done, and to look things up instead of guessing. |
| Agent | deepcell-builder | Owns one complete piece of work end to end and reports back. It gets a goal and its constraints, never a procedure. |

Nothing in the plugin names a flag, a tag, or a function, so nothing in it goes stale when one is renamed. The instructions own identity and judgment; deepcell guide owns the format and the modeling; deepcell --help owns the commands. The skill and the agent are generated from the same prompts the hosted agent runs on, and a drift test fails when they fall behind.

The plugin directory is also a plugin under Agent Plugins Specification v1.0.0, so clients other than Claude Code can install the same skill. Claude Code reads its own manifest and ignores the portable one; the agent above is a Claude Code concept and does not travel.

## If something does not work

- DeepCell is not in the /plugin list — run /reload-plugins, then check /plugin marketplace list for the deepcell marketplace.
- deepcell: command not found — the install directory is not on your PATH. Re-run the installer in step 2: it finds the directory, adds it to your shell profiles, and prints the line to paste into the shell you are already in.
- Commands report you are not signed in — run deepcell login; deepcell doctor says who the CLI currently thinks you are and what to run next.
- Claude edits the file's markup directly — say so. Its instruction is to go through the CLI, which is what runs the calc engine, the validation, and the version history.