Install and verify

Goal

Install the two parts of AI Power Tools, and confirm that the server answers, that Enterprise Architect is attached, and that the intended model is open. For a deployer (an EA administrator or IT engineer), or an architect installing for themselves. You end with the extension installed and enabled, the skills plugin installed on your claude.ai account, a live reply from the server with no update notice, the right model confirmed, and a clear record of any older copy that needs removing.

Where it runs

This scenario needs the MCP server. Computer use covers its UI steps.

Before you start

• Windows 10 or 11. The server drives EA through its automation interface, so it must run in the same Windows environment as EA.
• Sparx Enterprise Architect installed and licensed on that machine.
• Claude Desktop, with a claude.ai account. A local Claude Cowork session reaches EA through the extension on the workstation, which still needs Claude Desktop and a working EA. A cloud session has no local MCP server and cannot reach EA. Claude Code in a terminal does not load Claude Desktop extensions, so it gets no server from these packages.
• Network access to GitHub, where the marketplace and the release files live.
• For the checks: EA running with a model open before the first request. The server attaches to a running EA and does not start it on its own. After you agree, the AI can start EA and open the model, with computer use or through the server's launch operation. Without computer use, you take a screenshot of any dialog EA raises while it starts, paste it into the conversation, and then dismiss it.
• No baseline is needed. This scenario changes nothing in any model.

AI Power Tools is free: there is no license key and no activation step. The terms of use are in License. It has two parts, and each is installed once:

The plugin carries only the skills. Do not also install it through Claude Code's own plugin commands on the same machine, or the skills load twice in the Code tab. See Deployment packages for each way of installing in full.

The two parts update separately, and the server tells you when either is behind. The ea-start-here skill calls ping with the release of the skills the session loaded. When the skills or the server are behind the current release, the reply carries a notice, and the skill shows it to you word for word. A skills notice sends you to https://claude.ai/customize/plugins to sync the novocircle marketplace, then to quit Claude Desktop completely and reopen it. A server notice names the installed and the available versions and gives the extension steps: drag the new file onto Settings, Extensions, switch the extension off, choose Update, and switch it on. The first tool response after the server starts also reports a newer server. If no server answers, ea-start-here says so and works out which of three causes applies: a cloud session, which cannot reach a local MCP server; Claude Desktop timing out while it connected its local servers; or the extension not installed or switched off, for which it gives the download address.

Steps

1. You Install the server. Download AI-Power-Tools-for-Sparx-EA.mcpb, open Claude Desktop's Settings, Extensions, drag the file in, choose Install, and keep the extension enabled. See Claude Desktop extension.
2. You Install the skills. At https://claude.ai/customize/plugins add the marketplace NovoCircle/ai-power-tools-skills and install AI Power Tools. See Claude plugin.
3. You Quit Claude Desktop completely, including from the system tray, and reopen it. A new chat, a Claude Cowork session and the Code tab then have the extension and the skills.
4. AI with computer use; otherwise you Start EA and open the model you intend to work on. The AI asks before it launches anything.
5. AI Power Tools ea-start-here asks whether the server answers (ping). The reply carries the server's name and version. If there is no ping, the assistant works out the cause: a cloud session, which cannot reach a local MCP server; Claude Desktop timing out while it connected its local servers, fixed by reconnecting the extension or starting a new session; or the extension not installed or switched off. Until the server answers, nothing that touches EA will work. If the reply carries a notice, follow it before going on.
6. AI Power Tools ea-start-here reads what EA is attached to (get_repository_info): the open project's path, the EA version, the repository type, whether EA security is on, and the root packages. It also reports whether a newer server release exists.
7. You Confirm that the model reported is the one you intended. Writing to the wrong repository is silent and expensive.
8. AI Power Tools Optional smoke test: list the diagrams in a package and render one. A diagram that comes back as an image means the install works end to end.
9. You Check that each skill appears once. Ask for a skill by name, such as ea-modeling. If skills appear twice, or the reply from step 6 lists skill copies left by the older skills installer, approve their removal. See Moving from an older installation.

Three outcomes at step 6 need different responses.

• EA is not running. The server reports that EA is not running. The server never starts EA on its own. After you agree, the AI starts it, through the server's launch operation or with computer use. Launching an application on your desktop is your decision, so the AI asks first. Without computer use, you take a screenshot of any dialog EA raises while it starts, paste it into the conversation, and then dismiss it.
• EA is running with no model open. The server reports that no model is open. Open one in EA, or ask the AI to open a model from a path you give it. Creating a new model file is a separate request.
• A different model is open than you expected. Stop and ask which was intended.

A machine that holds both skill copies from the older skills installer and the plugin loads every skill twice, which doubles the always-on cost. The migration script, migrate-to-plugin.ps1, removes the old copies. It works from the older installer's own record, and it finds installs made before AI Power Tools 2.2.0 as well as later ones. It touches only copies that record names. Run it with -WhatIf first: that lists what it would remove and changes nothing. Without -WhatIf, the script lists the skills, names those it will not touch, and removes nothing until you confirm. When Claude runs it, you review the list in chat, and Claude then runs it with -Force. Files you edited locally are backed up first. The script also reports, without deleting, leftover folders and settings of older AI Power Tools extensions. Do not delete the user skills folder by hand: it can hold skills from other sources, and skills you wrote. Never remove the extension to move to the plugin: the extension is the server.

Prompts to use

Opening

Follow-ups

The AI should ask before it launches EA.

The smoke test.

Continues into Start a session safely.

Recommended models

Ratings are guidance based on the kind of reasoning the skill needs, not measured benchmarks.

Checking the result

• Accurate. The server version in the ping reply is the version you installed. The project path equals the file you meant to open, and the EA version equals the build in EA's About dialog.
• Complete. The ping reply carries no notice, which means the server and the skills are both current. Each skill appears once, with no unprefixed duplicate beside it, and the reply from the repository read lists no leftover copy from the older skills installer. A diagram renders in the smoke test when the model has diagrams.
• Nothing unintended changed. Nothing was written to any model. The only machine-level changes are the extension, the plugin on your account, and any older copies you chose to remove.

Variations

• Fleet deployment. An administrator deploys the extension and the plugin to each machine and verifies one pilot machine with steps 4 to 7 before widening. Treat the first fleet rollout as a pilot: it depends on how your organization manages Claude settings. See Enterprise fleet deployment.
• Migrating from the older installation. Keep and update the extension, add the plugin on the account, and run the migration script once on each machine that used the older skills installer. Machines whose skills were installed long ago are found too. Anyone who installed an earlier plugin that carried its own server and then removed the extension must install the extension again.
• Plugin file uploaded in Claude Desktop. The skills can also arrive as an uploaded ai-power-tools.plugin file. It is per machine and does not update itself. The server's update notice sends you to the skills release for the newer file, then to restart Claude. The server still comes from the extension.
• Updating the skills. The claude.ai marketplace does not sync on its own. Open https://claude.ai/customize/plugins, choose Manage marketplaces, sync novocircle, then quit Claude Desktop completely and reopen it. A new chat has the new skills after the sync, and the Code tab after Claude Desktop is reopened. See Updating and uninstalling.
• Updating the server. Drag the new .mcpb onto Settings, Extensions. On the screen that opens, switch the extension's Enabled toggle off, choose Update, then switch it back on. Updating while the server runs fails with a file-lock error.
• Claude Cowork. In a local session, ask for a skill by name, such as ea-modeling, and confirm that the EA tools reply. A cloud session has no local MCP server, so no EA tools are present.
• VS Code with GitHub Copilot. The VS Code extension delivers the server for Copilot Chat in Agent mode, and offers to set up the skills by adding the released-skills marketplace to VS Code; you then install the ai-power-tools plugin in VS Code (VS Code extension). It needs VS Code 1.99 or later, and a VS Code with agent plugins for the skills. Verify it with ping and the repository read.

Limitations

• Windows only. EA must be installed and running on the same machine as the server.
• The server does not start EA by itself. That is a property of the server. The AI can start EA, through the server's launch operation or with computer use, and does so only after you agree. Check what EA is attached to first.
• The two parts are installed and updated separately. The plugin cannot supply the server, and the extension cannot supply the skills. The ping notice tells you which one is behind.
• The skills reach a session only after Claude Desktop is reopened. Syncing the marketplace alone does not change a running Code tab.
• Organization policy can block third-party marketplaces. Where it does, the plugin must arrive through your own provisioning.
• Two copies of the skills load twice. An older skill copy beside the plugin, or the plugin installed a second time through Claude Code, doubles every skill.
• Upgrading the Claude Desktop extension while the server runs can fail with a file-lock error. Switch the extension off on the install screen before choosing Update, or quit Claude Desktop fully from the system tray, then install.
• One EA instance per seat. A per-user Sparx license limits concurrency. Never open a second EA against the same file.
• No telemetry. The update check contacts GitHub releases and nothing else. See Limitations and known issues.