ToughTongue Skills

Agent skills and MCP server for ToughTongue AI, the voice-agent platform for high-stakes conversation practice: interviews, sales, coaching, negotiations.

Install once, then work with ToughTongue from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any agent that supports the Agent Skills format:

• "Pull the last 3 lost deals from our call notes and create a practice scenario for the pricing objection."
• "For the Enterprise Discovery Call scenario, pull the last 50 sessions. What are the top 5 improvement areas?"
• "The onboarding agent keeps ending calls too early. Pull the low-scoring sessions, find out why, and fix the scenario."

These compose with the rest of your MCP ecosystem: Gong, Notion, calendar, slides, email. See What you can do for the full journeys.

Table of contents

• What's included
• Prerequisites
• Which setup fits you?
• Set up
  • Claude Code
  • Codex
  • Cursor
  • Copilot / Windsurf / Gemini CLI / other agents
  • Skills only
  • MCP only
• Verify your setup
• What you can do
• MCP Server
• Troubleshooting
• Repository structure
• Related
• License

What's included

This repo ships two layers that work together, plus plugins that bundle both:

Skills — workflow guidance your agent loads automatically when the conversation matches:

MCP server — live actions in your ToughTongue account. 26 tools over the public API: scenarios (create, update, generate, access tokens), sessions (list with evaluations, batch fetch, ingest, post-process), analytics and organizations, SIP phone calls, meeting bots, and collections. Full catalog in MCP.md.

Plugins (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) — bundle the skills and the MCP server registration in one install.

How the layers relate:

• Skills add judgment — the agent knows what good ToughTongue work looks like: how to author a scenario, diagnose a failing one, aggregate session data into a report.
• MCP adds action — the agent can do it: create scenarios, pull sessions, update configs, place calls.
• With skills only, your agent can advise. With MCP only, it can call tools. With both, it picks the right workflow and completes it. The plugin gives you both in one step.

Prerequisites

Every setup path needs these two things first:

1. A ToughTongue AI account — sign up at app.toughtongueai.com.
2. A Personal Access Token (PAT) — create one at app.toughtongueai.com/developer and export it in the environment your agent runs in:

export TTAI_PAT="<your-token>"

On macOS, GUI apps need the variable at the launchd level too:

launchctl setenv TTAI_PAT "$TTAI_PAT"

Then fully restart your agent app and start a new thread.

Note: authentication is PAT-based only — OAuth login is not supported yet. Never commit the PAT or paste it into config files: the plugin references it only through the TTAI_PAT environment variable.

Which setup fits you?

Not sure? Use the plugin — it's the least setup. Per-client instructions below.

Set up

Claude Code

The plugin bundles the skills and registers the ToughTongue MCP server (.mcp.json) in one install: no separate claude mcp add step needed. Just make sure TTAI_PAT is set (see Prerequisites).

Inside Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills
/plugin install toughtongue@toughtongue-skills

Or from the terminal:

claude plugin marketplace add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills
claude plugin install toughtongue@toughtongue-skills

Then run /toughtongue:getting-started: it verifies the connection, looks at your account, and starts your first workflow.

Skills are namespaced after install: invoke them as /toughtongue:scenario-creator, /toughtongue:scenario-refiner, /toughtongue:session-analyst: or just describe the task and Claude picks the right skill automatically.

Upgrade — refresh the marketplace catalog, then move the installed pin to the latest version:

claude plugin marketplace update toughtongue-skills
claude plugin update toughtongue@toughtongue-skills

Then run /reload-plugins in your session to apply.

Local development / testing — load the plugin without installing:

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/toughtongue-skills
# after edits, run /reload-plugins inside the session

Codex

The plugin bundles the skills and registers the ToughTongue MCP server (.mcp.json) in one install:

codex plugin marketplace add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills
codex plugin add toughtongue@toughtongue

Then restart Codex and start a new thread. Say "get me started with ToughTongue" to verify the setup and start your first workflow.

Upgrade — both steps are needed; the first refreshes the marketplace snapshot, the second re-pins the installed plugin to it:

codex plugin marketplace upgrade toughtongue
codex plugin add toughtongue@toughtongue

Local development / testing — register the checkout as a local marketplace:

codex plugin marketplace add /path/to/toughtongue-skills
codex plugin add toughtongue@toughtongue

Cursor

In Cursor, go to **Settings > Plugins > Team Marketplaces > Add Marketplace

Import from Repo**, point it at https://github.com/tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills, then install toughtongue.

Or assemble it manually in two steps:

1. Install the skills:

   npx skills add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills
   

2. Add the MCP server: Install in Cursor — one click adds the server; make sure TTAI_PAT is exported first. Or add it manually via "Cursor Settings" > "MCP" (config JSON in MCP.md).

Re-import the marketplace from Settings > Plugins > Team Marketplaces. If you installed the skills via the CLI, refresh them with npx skills update.

Copilot / Windsurf / Gemini CLI / other agents

No plugin for these yet — install the skills and the MCP server as two steps:

1. Install the skills. Works with any Agent Skills-compatible client:

npx skills add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills

The CLI prompts you to pick which skills to install and which agents to configure. To install everything non-interactively:

npx skills add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills --all

Update existing skills later with:

npx skills update

2. Add the MCP server. Point your client at the hosted server — the general shape is:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ttai": {
      "url": "https://api.toughtongueai.com/api/public/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${TTAI_PAT}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Exact config per client (Copilot/VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI) is in MCP.md.

Stdio-only clients (Claude Desktop, Zed, older VS Code): bridge to the hosted server with mcp-remote — see MCP.md.

Skills only

Want the workflow guidance without connecting your account?

npx skills add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills

The agent can advise on scenario design, evaluation rubrics, and coaching patterns — but it can't create or modify anything in ToughTongue. Add the MCP server later (step 2 above) when you want action.

MCP only

If you only want the tools (no skills):

# Codex
codex mcp add ttai --url https://api.toughtongueai.com/api/public/mcp \
  --bearer-token-env-var TTAI_PAT

# Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http ttai https://api.toughtongueai.com/api/public/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${TTAI_PAT}"

More clients in MCP.md.

Verify your setup

Ask your agent:

Call the ttai MCP tool list_organizations and show me the result.
Then list my scenarios.

You should see two things:

• The agent reaches your ToughTongue account and returns real data — the MCP connection works.
• The agent reasons in ToughTongue terms — scenarios, sessions, rubrics, report cards — the skills are loaded.

On a skills-only setup, verify with "What can I do with ToughTongue?" — the agent should describe the workflows but won't be able to call tools.

What you can do

Coding agents are where work happens now. These journeys show ToughTongue composing with the other tools already connected to your agent: copy any prompt to start.

1. Practice this sales call

A sales manager spots an AE struggling with pricing objections in real calls.

Pull the last 3 calls from Gong where we lost on pricing. Create a ToughTongue scenario to practice handling that objection, using our positioning doc from Notion. Give me the shareable practice link.

Gong MCP (search_calls / list_calls → get_call_transcript) + Notion MCP → scenario-creator builds a sales roleplay from the real objections → create_scenario → shareable practice link.

2. How is my team doing?

A VP of Sales wants the team's skill gaps, not raw transcripts.

For the "Enterprise Discovery Call" scenario, pull the last 50 sessions. What are the top 5 improvement areas? Build me a 3-slide deck.

session-analyst → list_sessions (scores, strengths, weaknesses per session) → aggregates report-card topics and weakness themes → slides MCP for the deck.

3. Refine from real conversations

A CS manager notices low scores on the onboarding scenario.

Pull the 5 lowest-scoring sessions for our onboarding scenario, figure out what went wrong, and fix the scenario.

list_sessions (sorted by score) → get_sessions_batch (full transcripts + evaluations) → scenario-refiner diagnoses the root cause → surgical update_scenario: live for the next session.

4. Prep me for this meeting

A sales rep has a discovery call in 30 minutes.

I have a call with Sarah Chen from Acme Corp in 30 minutes. Create a quick practice scenario so I can rehearse.

Calendar MCP + web search for attendee/company context → scenario-creator → create_scenario → start practicing in minutes.

5. Automated post-call coaching

An engineering team wires coaching into their call pipeline.

Every time a call ends in Gong, analyze the transcript and email the rep a coaching report.

Webhook script → create_session (ingest transcript against a coaching scenario) + post_process_session → poll get_sessions_batch until analysis completes → email MCP sends the report. Full recipe in session-analyst's report templates.

MCP Server

The plugin registers ToughTongue's hosted MCP server at https://api.toughtongueai.com/api/public/mcp (Streamable HTTP, TTAI_PAT bearer auth). There is nothing to install and no local process to run. It exposes 26 tools over the public API: scenarios (create, update, generate, access tokens), sessions (list with evaluations, batch fetch, ingest, post-process), analytics and organizations, SIP phone calls, meeting bots, and collections.

See MCP.md for the full tool catalog, per-client setup (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, Gemini CLI), and troubleshooting.

Known limitation: connector UIs that support only OAuth (for example claude.ai web custom connectors) cannot attach a Bearer header and cannot connect today. OAuth support is planned; PAT auth will keep working for servers, CI, and headless agents after it ships.

Troubleshooting

• Fewer than 26 ttai tools listed: your agent trimmed or cached tool discovery. Start a fresh thread; if it persists, remove and re-add the MCP server.
• 401 / authentication errors: TTAI_PAT is not visible to the agent process. Re-export, launchctl setenv on macOS, fully restart the app.
• Skills installed but the agent can't do anything: skills are guidance only — the agent also needs the MCP server for live actions. See Which setup fits you? and add the MCP server for your client.
• Looking for OAuth / browser sign-in: not supported yet — authentication is PAT-based only (see Prerequisites).
• Scenario edits not taking effect in a running call: scenario changes apply to new sessions only; sessions compile their prompt at start.

If /plugin install fails or claude plugin list shows stale entries, do a clean reinstall — run these in order in any Claude Code session:

1. /plugin marketplace remove toughtongue-skills
2. /plugin marketplace add tough-tongue/toughtongue-skills
3. /plugin marketplace update toughtongue-skills
4. /plugin install toughtongue@toughtongue-skills

Step 3 forces Claude Code to re-read the marketplace manifest. After step 4, claude plugin list should show one toughtongue@toughtongue-skills entry.

Repository structure

toughtongue-skills/
├── .claude-plugin/        # Claude Code plugin + marketplace manifests
├── .codex-plugin/         # Codex plugin manifest
├── .cursor-plugin/        # Cursor plugin manifest
├── .agents/plugins/       # Codex plugin-marketplace entry
├── .mcp.json              # Hosted MCP server registration (TTAI_PAT bearer)
├── MCP.md                 # MCP server docs: setup per client, tool catalog
├── skill-evals/           # Evaluation scenarios per skill
└── skills/                # Each: SKILL.md + references/ + agents/openai.yaml
    ├── getting-started/   # Post-install onboarding: verify, orient, first journey
    ├── scenario-creator/  # Type-specific authoring references
    ├── scenario-refiner/  # Runtime behavior reference
    └── session-analyst/   # Report templates

Related

• Sign up · Developer portal / PAT · Platform docs · llms-full.txt (AI-readable API reference)
• voice-ai-quickstart: starter templates for building apps on ToughTongue AI (Next.js, Flask, co-navigation demo, scenario-as-code CLI) and the toughtongue-ai integration skill for developers embedding the platform.

License

MIT