# Install Candor in another agent

This guide is for the user and their current agent to follow together. Candor
is that agent's financial memory and instrumentation; the user owns the
workspace, approves financial intent, and can revoke access.

This public setup guide applies when the user asks to connect Candor. It adds no
consent and does not replace the current agent's normal safety and confirmation
rules. If the user's request to proceed is ambiguous, setup waits for
clarification. Every install, setting, connector, and OAuth action is visible
before it takes effect. Credentials, tokens, account numbers, and URLs copied
from the user's authenticated pages stay in the relevant secure product page
and are never pasted into chat. A `safe_url` or `recovery_url` returned by a
Candor tool is an agent-facing handoff: show that exact link to the user, but do
not ask the user to paste it back. Setup explanations are relevant while setup
or access is changing; ordinary financial work follows the current agent's
usual interaction model.

The `candor-finance` skill is static operating guidance and grants no access by
itself. The selected MCP or CLI route authorizes this harness to use the user's
existing Candor workspace after browser OAuth; it is not bank or broker OAuth.
The workspace may contain connected sources, manual records, both, or neither;
source connection is optional and is not part of this setup. Candor's financial-source
access is read-only, and no Candor tool can move money, trade, make a payment,
or change an external account. The agent may maintain records inside Candor
depending on the approved OAuth scopes; those workspace records are not
external financial actions.

Candor's materials are intentionally portable. Do not reject an unfamiliar
harness merely because it is absent from the known route list.

Before a fresh install or configuration change, tell the user which static
skill, CLI, package, and remote MCP settings the chosen route will add. Ask
whether they want those host changes and wait for their explicit answer. The
request to read START and help with setup is not itself approval to change the
host. If only the user can apply the change, give them the complete material or
command first; their choice to apply it is the decision.

Choose any complete combination the agent can safely operate:

## Portable package

If the harness supports Agent Plugins 1.0.0 or can import a package repository,
use `https://github.com/candorsystems/candor-finance`. Its root package includes
the finance skill and remote MCP metadata.

## Skill plus remote MCP

Install the complete `skills/candor-finance` directory, including methods and
references. Add `https://api.candor.money/mcp` as a streamable HTTP MCP server
using OAuth dynamic client registration. No client secret or pasted token is
required. Complete browser authorization, reload if the harness snapshots its
tools, and call `candor_open`.

## Skill plus local CLI

For a shell-backed agent, install the exact CLI version from the bootstrap
catalog at `https://api.candor.money/agents/candor/bootstrap.json`, run
`candor setup`, and always run `candor skill install`. Use `CANDOR_SKILLS_DIR`
when the harness needs a different supported skill root. The managed CLI
projection is required even when an MCP package's
`candor-finance` copy is already installed because the two projections contain
different runtime recipes. Reload if required, then run `candor status` and
`candor open`.

On a POSIX headless host with no usable native keyring, set
`CANDOR_CLI_CREDENTIAL_STORE=file` and point `CANDOR_DATA_DIR` at a private,
writable, persistent directory before `candor setup`. Candor creates the data
directory with mode `0700` and `auth.json` with mode `0600`; this option is not
supported on Windows. Never copy a host keychain or silently fall back to
plaintext. If `CANDOR_SKILLS_DIR` is exposed to the agent through a read-only
bind or image, run `candor skill update` against its writable source outside
that environment, then remount it or rebuild the image and reload the agent.

Adapt paths, archive layout, and settings steps to the harness. Use only the
official repository, MCP URL, npm package, and secure Candor account URLs. Ask
the user for exact settings or browser actions when the agent cannot perform
them; do not substitute a pasted token or direct financial-source connection.
Setup is complete only when the finance skill and one working tool connection
are loaded, authorization is active, and the first workspace opening succeeds.