/hq-cowork — Native HQ from a sandboxed agent

SkillDev tools

Discover and dispatch HQ capabilities from a sandboxed Cowork plugin host.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the /hq-cowork — Native HQ from a sandboxed agent skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by indigoai-us/hq-core in core/packages/hq-pack-cowork/skills/hq-cowork/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Cowork's bash runs in an isolated Linux VM that cannot see ~/.hq (Cognito auth) or reach the host's hq / qmd binaries. hq-pack-cowork ships a host-side stdio MCP server that runs those binaries with full auth and exposes them as mcp__hq__* tool calls. This skill is the map: it tells you which tool covers which HQ capability and how to call it.

Args: $ARGUMENTS — optional. A capability keyword (e.g. sync, secrets, meetings) jumps straight to that section's guidance. No arg = print the full capability map below and ask what the user wants.

Capability map

NeedToolNotes
Confirm identity / sessionmcp__hq__hq_whoamiemail + session expiry. First call to sanity-check wiring.
Bidirectional syncmcp__hq__hq_synccompany to scope, personal: true for personal vault, else all.
Pull team contentmcp__hq__hq_team_syncone-way down-sync; team to scope, dryRun to preview.
Search HQ contentmcp__hq__hq_searchqmd hybrid. See /hq-cowork-search.
qmd read/list/ask/indexmcp__hq__hq_qmdSame qmd-first workflow as default HQ sessions: collections/status/list/get/multi_get/search/ask/update.
Run cmd with a secretmcp__hq__hq_secrets_execvalues injected as env, NEVER returned. See /hq-cowork-secrets.
List secret namesmcp__hq__hq_secrets_listnames/metadata only — no values.
Share a vault pathmcp__hq__hq_sharemint URL or grant ACL. See /hq-cowork-share.
Read vault objectsmcp__hq__hq_filesbrowse / cat / acl / search / shared-with-me / get. See /hq-cowork-files.
Membershipsmcp__hq__hq_memberslist / invite / revoke.
Permission groupsmcp__hq__hq_groupslist / members / create / delete / add / remove.
DM a teammatemcp__hq__hq_dmHQ Desktop App notification. See /hq-cowork-dm.
HQ packagesmcp__hq__hq_packageslist / install / remove / update.
Knowledge modulesmcp__hq__hq_moduleslist / add / sync / update.
Meetingsmcp__hq__hq_meetingslist / get / search / transcript / notes. See /hq-cowork-meetings.
Sourcesmcp__hq__hq_sourcesmeeting/email/slack/linear/notion attached to an entity.
Signalsmcp__hq__hq_signalsaction_item / commitment / decision / key_point / risk / summary.
File a bug / featuremcp__hq__hq_feedbackaction: bug|feature, title, body.
Run with .env.schema secretsmcp__hq__hq_runvalidates cwd, injects env, returns child output only.
Long-tail HQ CLImcp__hq__hq_cliguarded escape hatch for commands not yet wrapped. See /hq-cowork-cli.

Security envelope (carries over from HQ core policies)

  • Secret values never cross the MCP boundary. hq_secrets_exec injects them into a child process env; hq_secrets_list shows names only. There is no value-revealing tool. Never try to echo a secret to capture its value.
  • Cross-company isolation. Always pass company explicitly when crossing contexts. Never let the server fall back to another company's scope. If the scoped creds fail, stop and ask — don't retry against a different company.
  • Share-session URLs are single-use capabilities. hq_share returns the minted URL once. Print it that turn, then redact as https://hq.{co}.com/share-session/<TOKEN_REDACTED> everywhere after.
  • Escape hatch stays guarded. hq_cli blocks login/logout/onboard, secret-value output, raw hq secrets set|exec, and hq run (use hq_run instead).

When to use this instead of the unprefixed skills

Use the hq-cowork-* family (and direct mcp__hq__* calls) only inside Cowork or another sandboxed plugin host. On a normal host-side Claude Code session prefer the unprefixed /hq-sync, /hq-share, /search, /hq-secrets, /dm, etc. — fewer hops, same result.

What you do

  1. If $ARGUMENTS names a capability, skip to that tool and call it with the user's parameters. If ambiguous or empty, show the capability map and ask.
  2. Prefer the dedicated hq-cowork-* skill when one exists (search, share, secrets, files, dm, meetings) — it carries the per-capability nuance.
  3. Always start a fresh wiring with mcp__hq__hq_whoami if a tool errors with an auth/ENOENT message — that confirms whether the host server is logged in and has hq/qmd on PATH.

Signals

GitHub stars
84
Forks
15
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
hq-cowork
Source
github.com/indigoai-us/hq-core