What’s included

The Arcade plugin provides tools and workflows to connect to external services via Arcade’s library of over 1,000 optimized tools. Component support within the plugin varies by client support.

MCP server

The plugin registers an MCP server named arcade at https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/arcade. The gateway provides tools for email, calendar, chat, issues, docs, and other apps.

Skills

• try-arcade guides tool selection, app sign-in, and tasks across connected apps.
• scale-arcade guides gateway, tool selection, and end-user identity decisions for a proven workflow.

Skills load when relevant to your request or when called directly. How to call a skill will vary by client.

Subagent

The arcade-operator subagent executes app tasks in a separate context and returns the outcome. The try-arcade skill delegates to it when the client exposes arcade-operator, keeping the main conversation thread clear.

Client support

All clients below load the Arcade MCP server and both skills. See the plugin support matrix  for full up-to-date client details.

Client	Subagent	Commands
Cursor IDE and Cloud Agents	Yes	3 (IDE: plugin page, not / menu)
Cursor CLI	Yes	3
Claude Code CLI and desktop Code tab	Yes	3 (/arcade: prefix)
Claude Cowork	Yes	3 (/arcade: prefix)
GitHub Copilot CLI	Yes	None
VS Code (Copilot sessions)	Yes	None
Codex CLI and Codex in ChatGPT desktop	No	None
Claude Desktop Chat	No	None

Commands

Some clients namespace the commands as /arcade:arcade-status, /arcade:arcade-connect, and /arcade:arcade-apps.

/arcade-status

Reports whether the gateway is reachable, whether you have signed in, and which apps you have authorized.

/arcade-connect <app>

Authorize an app ahead of time on demand, so you are not interrupted mid-task.

/arcade-apps

Lists the apps you have connected and lets you disconnect one.

Projects and secrets

The plugin uses the default project created when you sign up for Arcade. Selecting another project in the Dashboard, or joining another project via invite, does not change the plugin’s project context.

Individual tools may require a provider API key or another secret. Add these to your default project’s secrets. Secrets configured in another project are not available to you through the plugin.

Example requests

• “Send a summary of tomorrow’s calendar events to me on Slack.”
• “Read my Granola notes from last week, check them against Linear, and file anything I promised that is not a ticket yet. Wait for me before creating anything.”
• “Find unread mail that needs a reply. Look the sender up in HubSpot if you can, draft a response, and Slack me the draft before sending.”
• “Pull my open GitHub pull requests, my Linear issues, and tomorrow’s calendar. Write a standup update and send it to me on Slack.”
• “Search my Drive and Notion for the product spec my team uses, then drop a one-paragraph summary in Slack.”

Or ask “What can Arcade do?” and pick a workflow from the answer.

Next steps

• Install the Arcade agent plugin: client-native setup and gateway sign-in
• Integrations catalog: supported apps and toolkits