Installing nWave for Devin CLI

Goal

After this guide, nWave skills are installed into Devin CLI's global discovery root (~/.config/devin/skills/) and you can confirm the installation with a short checklist.

What Devin gets: the public nWave methodology skill files in its native discovery root. Live slash-command discovery inside a Devin session is not covered by the installer's verification; check it in the host after restarting. Devin 3000.6.14 has no hook API (confirmed 2026-10-11). The installed Python package supplies nwave-ai and nwdes; the host runs verification commands.

Prerequisites

Python 3.11 or later — Check with python3 --version

uv (recommended) or pipx (fallback) — Install with:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh    # uv (recommended)
# or, as a fallback:
python3 -m pip install pipx && pipx ensurepath     # pipx

Devin CLI — Install from devin.ai. Verify with which devin or ls ~/.config/devin/.

Install

Step 1: Install nWave CLI

uv tool install nwave-ai     # recommended
# or, as a fallback:
pipx install nwave-ai

From a source checkout instead of the published package:

uv run python -m nwave_ai.cli install

Step 2: Install into Devin (global)

Preview first, then install:

nwave-ai install --platform devin --dry-run
nwave-ai install --platform devin

The installer copies all public nWave skills into ~/.config/devin/skills/ and writes a .nwave-manifest.json ownership file there so future upgrades and uninstalls know exactly which directories belong to nWave. The v4 installer writes no runtime copy; a Devin install touches only the skill directories and that manifest.

Auto-detect note: if Devin CLI is present and auto-detect includes it, nwave-ai install alone may be enough. Prefer --platform devin when you want an explicit Devin-only install.

Step 3: Check installation

Check the installer's native Devin verification and the manifest-owned skill directories. It reports the number of skills it verified; the count depends on the installed release, so do not treat one release's number as a stable expectation.

The package supplies the nwdes command; confirm it — the one nwdes command you run at setup:

nwdes --help

Devin receives the skills only, so a fresh session finds nwdes partly on its own: ask your assistant about the installed nw- skills, or point it at Deliver a feature with the sentence from For your assistant.

On a Devin-only install, nwave-ai doctor may verify the native Devin skills and still exit 1, because its baseline checks expect Claude settings and framework directories:

5/11 checks passed, 6 failed, 0 could not be verified

Do not install Claude assets to satisfy those checks for a Devin-only install. Native skill verification is not a live discovery test; restart Devin and check discovery in the host separately.

Devin global install checklist

After install, confirm the key paths are in place:

test -d "$HOME/.config/devin/skills"
test -f "$HOME/.config/devin/skills/.nwave-manifest.json"
ls "$HOME/.config/devin/skills/" | grep "^nw-" | wc -l

Expected outcome:

Both test commands pass.
The ls output lists the public nw-* skills of the installed release.

One-shot copy/paste:

nwave-ai install --platform devin --yes \
  && test -d "$HOME/.config/devin/skills" \
  && test -f "$HOME/.config/devin/skills/.nwave-manifest.json" \
  && echo "Devin skills installed: $(ls "$HOME/.config/devin/skills/" | grep -c '^nw-') skills"

What Got Installed

Path	Purpose
`~/.config/devin/skills/nw-*/`	nWave methodology skill directories
`~/.config/devin/skills/.nwave-manifest.json`	nWave ownership manifest for Devin

The installer writes nothing under ~/.nwave/ for a Devin install. That directory holds your configuration (config.json) and installer backups if they exist; a runtime/ folder there is a 3.x-era leftover, which a v4 install removes on upgrade.

Host capabilities (confirmed 2026-10-11, Devin 3000.6.14):

Capability	Status
Skills (methodology guidance)	Native skill files installed; installer verification passed. Live `/devin:nw-*` discovery is not covered by installer verification; check it in the host.
Pre-tool hook	Not available — Devin uses `permissions` (Exec allow-lists) instead
CLI execution (`nwave-ai`, `nwdes`)	Console scripts supplied by the installed Python package

Running the CLI: use the console scripts from the environment where you installed nwave-ai. A virtual-environment install places them in that environment's executable directory. A tool-manager install uses that manager's command path. If a command is not found, fix that environment's PATH or use its executable directly; do not add a Claude-local PYTHONPATH or an alias.

DEVIN_CONFIG_DIR can relocate Devin's skill configuration root. A previous or separately selected host can have additional assets; those are not prerequisites for Devin.

Upgrading

Re-run nwave-ai install --platform devin to pick up the latest skills. The installer replaces only manifest-owned skill directories; your own non-nw--prefixed Devin skills are never touched.

Uninstall

nwave-ai uninstall

For manual removal, open the ownership manifest ~/.config/devin/skills/.nwave-manifest.json in an editor. If you set DEVIN_CONFIG_DIR, use that root instead. Inspect its installed_skills list. Remove only the exact skill directories named in that manifest, then remove the manifest. Preserve every unlisted directory, including user-created names such as nw-personal. Never use a wildcard deletion based on the nw- prefix.

To remove the package's console commands, use the package manager that installed nwave-ai, after running the framework uninstaller. The uninstaller removes the manifest-owned Devin skills; it leaves your configuration and any backups under ~/.nwave/ (and a 3.x-era runtime/ leftover, which a v4 install removes on upgrade) — delete those yourself if you want a fully clean machine.

Common Issues

Skills not discovered

Symptom: Devin does not list nWave skills in its registry.

Steps:

# Confirm the directory exists and contains skill dirs:
ls ~/.config/devin/skills/ | grep "^nw-" | head -5

# Confirm each skill has a SKILL.md:
ls ~/.config/devin/skills/nw-design/

If the files are present but Devin does not surface them, restart Devin CLI so it rescans its global skills root.

Wrong skill count after upgrade

Re-run the installer — a stale manifest may be tracking skills that were renamed or removed in the new release:

nwave-ai install --platform devin --yes
# Check the installer's native Devin verification and ownership manifest.

CLI path issues

Use the console scripts from the environment where the package was installed, not a host-local Python module path or alias. Native Devin skill paths use its configured discovery root, by default ~/.config/devin/skills/; check DEVIN_CONFIG_DIR if it is set.

References

Delivery migration: Migrating from 3.x
Vendor support: Vendor support
Cursor twin guide: Installing for Cursor
Codex twin guide: Installing for Codex CLI
OMP twin guide: Installing for OMP

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