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glyphs-reference

A Claude Code plugin providing 10 Skills covering Glyphs.app documentation: Python/Obj-C API, file format, SDK reference, Vanilla UI, packages, localization, and web search.

Replaces the legacy glyphs-info-mcp MCP server with ~98% lower token usage via Claude's Skills progressive disclosure.

What's inside

Skill	Covers
glyphs-python-api	Python scripting API reference
glyphs-objc-headers	Objective-C plugin headers
glyphs-sdk-reference	Plugin SDK reference, templates, and samples
glyphs-vanilla-ui	Vanilla UI library (used in Glyphs plugin UI)
glyphs-file-format	.glyphs / .glyphspackage format spec
glyphs-light-table	Light Table extension API
glyphs-localization	Glyphs localization data and language codes
glyphs-packages	Package management workflows
glyphs-remote-scripts	Remote script API reference
glyphs-web-search	Glyphs handbook web search

Plus a meta-search agent (agents/glyphs-meta-search.md) for cross-skill queries.

Requirements

• Claude Code installed
• macOS (for Glyphs.app development workflows)
• Optional: GlyphsSDK — included as a submodule for glyphs-sdk-reference

Installation

Via marketplace (recommended)

This repo is also a Claude Code plugin marketplace. In Claude Code (or Claude Desktop), run:

/plugin marketplace add yintzuyuan/glyphs-reference
/plugin install glyphs-reference@glyphs-reference

Note: the glyphs-sdk-reference skill relies on the bundled GlyphsSDK submodule, which the marketplace install fetches with the repo.

Direct from this repo (for local development)

Clone with submodules to get GlyphsSDK:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/yintzuyuan/glyphs-reference.git

Or if already cloned without submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Then point Claude Code at the cloned directory as a local plugin source.

Migration from glyphs-info-mcp

If you previously used glyphs-info-mcp (the MCP server):

• The MCP is in maintenance mode; this plugin is the recommended path forward
• Same data, ~98% lower token usage via Skills progressive disclosure
• Migration steps:
  1. Remove glyphs-info-mcp entry from your claude_desktop_config.json (or unset its activation in your environment)
  2. Install this plugin (see Installation above)
  3. The skills are auto-discovered; no manual configuration needed

Why Skills over MCP?

The original glyphs-info-mcp was a stdio MCP server. Every Claude Code session would eager-load all 150K+ tokens of API documentation, regardless of whether the user actually queried Glyphs APIs.

Skills with progressive disclosure load only what's needed: ~2K tokens of skill descriptions upfront, full content fetched on demand. For typical sessions, this saves about 98% of token budget.

This mirrors Anthropic's published rationale for progressive disclosure: "loading all tool definitions upfront and passing intermediate results through the context window slows down agents and increases costs" (Anthropic engineering blog: Code execution with MCP). Their reference example reports a reduction from 150,000 to 2,000 tokens — about 98.7%.

Contributing

PRs and issues welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Acknowledgements

• Glyphs SDK by Schriftgestaltung GbR
• Inspired by Anthropic's progressive disclosure design
• Built with Claude Code