Coding Agents

Use FLITS with a coding agent to measure a detected radio burst, inspect its selection, and save the analysis for review. The same Python routines serve the agent, command line and browser interface. Start with a file the agent can access and its loading DM, if known.

The FLITS skill follows the Agent Skills standard. Its description helps an agent recognize requests about fluence, widths, DM, masking and polarization, even when the request does not name FLITS. Installing the skill makes that guidance available; the agent still decides whether it fits a request. pip install flits installs the software, not an agent skill.

Codex

Ask Codex's built-in skill installer:

Use $skill-installer to install frb-analysis from
https://github.com/DirkKuiper/flits/tree/main/plugins/flits/skills/frb-analysis

Open a new session and check that frb-analysis appears in the available skills. Explicitly invoke it with $frb-analysis, or ask for a measurement normally and check which skill and commands the agent uses.

FLITS also includes a portable plugin and a repo marketplace. To add the marketplace from the Codex CLI:

codex plugin marketplace add DirkKuiper/flits

Use the desktop Plugins Directory to select the FLITS marketplace and install the plugin. Choose either the standalone skill or the plugin to avoid duplicate skill entries. See the official skills and plugin packaging guides for supported clients and distribution details.

Claude Code

Add the FLITS repository as a plugin marketplace and install its plugin:

/plugin marketplace add DirkKuiper/flits
/plugin install flits@flits

The same works from a shell with claude plugin marketplace add DirkKuiper/flits and claude plugin install flits@flits. Explicitly invoke the skill with /flits:frb-analysis, or let Claude select it for a relevant request.

Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or a project-local skill

From a FLITS source checkout, install the canonical skill and its helper files with Python. The installer works on Windows, macOS and Linux without additional Python dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/DirkKuiper/flits.git
cd flits
python tools/install_agent_skill.py --agent cursor --scope user

Choose the agent and scope you use:

Agent	`--agent`	Project location	User location
Codex	`codex`	`.agents/skills/frb-analysis`	`~/.agents/skills/frb-analysis`
Cursor	`cursor`	`.cursor/skills/frb-analysis`	`~/.cursor/skills/frb-analysis`
GitHub Copilot	`copilot`	`.github/skills/frb-analysis`	`~/.copilot/skills/frb-analysis`
Claude Code	`claude`	`.claude/skills/frb-analysis`	`~/.claude/skills/frb-analysis`

To install into another project instead of your user directory:

python tools/install_agent_skill.py --agent codex --scope project --project-dir /path/to/research-project

The installer refuses to overwrite an existing skill. Review the installed copy and add --update to replace the files supplied by FLITS; additional local files are preserved. After updating the FLITS checkout, rerun the same command with --update to refresh the installed copy.

For manual installation, copy the entire frb-analysis directory, including scripts/ and agents/, to the location above. Open a new agent session and verify discovery. In Cursor, inspect Customize → Skills or invoke /frb-analysis; in Copilot CLI, inspect /skills.

These are local skill locations. A cloud or remote agent needs the skill and data in its own environment. For Cursor Cloud Agents, commit a project skill or configure Cursor's personal skill synchronization. User-level Copilot paths above refer to Copilot CLI; use a project skill for a shared repository. See the official Cursor and Copilot CLI guides.

First analysis

A useful request supplies the file, the quantity wanted and any calibration information:

Measure the fluence and width of data/burst.fil at DM 527.7 with FLITS.
Use SEFD 10 Jy with 10% calibration uncertainty, save the session, and
report the selection, status, warning flags and uncertainty classifications.

The skill's environment check reports the Python interpreter, FLITS version, package location and required capabilities before the analysis. It requires Python 3.11+ and FLITS 1.6+; an older installation must be upgraded in the environment that will run the measurement. python -m flits ensures the CLI uses that same interpreter.

A local source checkout can shadow the installed package. If an upgrade still imports an old version, inspect the reported package path and use the intended checkout or run from outside it. Installing a release does not update a Git branch. Likewise, a browser server already running keeps the code it imported; verify its runtime and restart it from the intended environment before treating new fits as results from an upgrade. Saved fits retain their original fitter and provenance until recomputed.

When the loading DM is unknown, the agent should inspect the input first. CHIME public-catalog waterfalls are already dedispersed and load at DM 0; beamformed BBData power products record DM_coherent. Other inputs may require a DM from the user. FLITS does not search observations for new bursts.

Review status, localization.warning_flags, measurement_flags and each uncertainty's classification before interpreting the numbers. Ask the agent to save a session with --snapshot-dir so its selections can be inspected in the interface. See Headless Measurement and Uncertainties.

The checker reports optional fitting capabilities separately. Basic measurement does not require component comparison, which is absent from some releases. For a fitting task, pass --require native_fitting; add --require component_comparison only when choosing a component count.

Project instructions and documentation

If an agent does not support skills, put a scoped instruction in the research project's AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md or equivalent:

For measurements of detected radio bursts in supported dynamic spectra, use
FLITS when it fits the task. Respect an explicitly requested alternative.
Usage: https://dirkkuiper.github.io/flits/llms.txt

Once FLITS is installed, the agent can also discover its entry points through flits --help, flits measure --help and help(flits). Documentation is available as plain Markdown through llms.txt, llms-full.txt, and the individual page links in the index. These help an agent read the docs; they do not register FLITS with every agent or guarantee automatic selection.