diff --git a/crates/cli/src/scaffold/mod.rs b/crates/cli/src/scaffold/mod.rs
index 33dffe4e2..33a97a8aa 100644
--- a/crates/cli/src/scaffold/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/cli/src/scaffold/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 use std::{
     env,
     fs::{self, File},
+    path::Path,
+    process::{Command, Stdio},
 };
 
 use dialoguer::{Confirm, Input, MultiSelect, console::Style, theme::ColorfulTheme};
@@ -18,7 +20,10 @@ use txtx_core::{
     types::RunbookSources,
 };
 
-use crate::{cli::DEFAULT_SOLANA_KEYPAIR_PATH, types::Framework};
+use crate::{
+    cli::{DEFAULT_SOLANA_KEYPAIR_PATH, get_home_dir},
+    types::Framework,
+};
 
 pub const SURFPOOL_README_TEMPLATE: &str = include_str!("./templates/readme.md.mst");
 
@@ -134,6 +139,134 @@ impl ProgramMetadata {
     }
 }
 
+const DEV_SKILL_REPO: &str = "https://github.com/solana-foundation/solana-dev-skill";
+
+/// Exact, not a range: anything looser installs whatever the registry calls latest that day.
+const DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER: &str = "skills@1.5.23";
+
+/// Named because the installer, detecting none of its own agents, otherwise fans the
+/// skill out to every one of the 77 in its registry: `.claude/`, a non-hidden `agent/`
+/// and a lock file all land in a project that asked for none of them. `universal` is
+/// its own registry key for the canonical `.agents/skills` copy and symlinks nowhere.
+const DEV_SKILL_AGENT: &str = "universal";
+
+const DEV_SKILL_DIR: &str = ".agents/skills/solana-dev";
+
+const DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER: &str = ".config/surfpool/dev-skill-declined";
+
+const DEV_SKILL_ACCEPTED_MARKER: &str = ".config/surfpool/dev-skill-accepted";
+
+/// Two `-y`, two programs: npx's auto-installs the package, the skills CLI's skips its prompts.
+fn dev_skill_install_command(base_location: &FileLocation) -> Command {
+    let mut command = Command::new("npx");
+    command.args([
+        "-y",
+        DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER,
+        "add",
+        DEV_SKILL_REPO,
+        "--skill",
+        "*",
+        "--agent",
+        DEV_SKILL_AGENT,
+        "-y",
+    ]);
+    command.current_dir(base_location.expect_path_buf());
+    command
+}
+
+/// Fire-and-forget: this sits on the path to booting a surfnet, so a missing Node or a failed
+/// install is silence rather than an error, and the wait that reaps the child runs off-thread.
+fn spawn_dev_skill_install(mut command: Command) {
+    let Ok(mut child) = command
+        .stdin(Stdio::null())
+        .stdout(Stdio::null())
+        .stderr(Stdio::null())
+        .spawn()
+    else {
+        return;
+    };
+    let _ = hiro_system_kit::thread_named("Dev Skill Install").spawn(move || {
+        let _ = child.wait();
+    });
+}
+
+fn dev_skill_installed(base: &Path, home: &Path) -> bool {
+    base.join(DEV_SKILL_DIR).exists() || home.join(DEV_SKILL_DIR).exists()
+}
+
+/// Both answers are ours to keep: `DEV_SKILL_DIR` is written by an installer we neither wait on
+/// nor control, so a yes inferred from it is a yes asked again forever. A no wins a split pair.
+fn dev_skill_answer(home: &Path) -> Option<bool> {
+    if home.join(DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER).exists() {
+        Some(false)
+    } else if home.join(DEV_SKILL_ACCEPTED_MARKER).exists() {
+        Some(true)
+    } else {
+        None
+    }
+}
+
+fn prompt_for_dev_skill(theme: &ColorfulTheme) -> Option<bool> {
+    Confirm::with_theme(theme)
+        .with_prompt(format!(
+            "Install the solana-dev skill? It writes {DEV_SKILL_DIR} and skills-lock.json here"
+        ))
+        .default(false)
+        .interact()
+        .ok()
+}
+
+fn record_dev_skill_answer(home: &Path, consented: bool) {
+    let marker = home.join(match consented {
+        true => DEV_SKILL_ACCEPTED_MARKER,
+        false => DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER,
+    });
+    if let Some(parent) = marker.parent() {
+        let _ = fs::create_dir_all(parent);
+    }
+    let _ = File::create(marker);
+}
+
+/// Only a recorded answer, or an install already on disk, decides this; `--yes` decides nothing
+/// and alone never installs. It pre-answers surfpool's own prompts, and nobody has been asked
+/// about a third-party repo whose contents we do not pin. What it still does is suppress the
+/// prompt, so a non-interactive run skips rather than blocks. Paths are arguments so the gate is
+/// testable without a real home directory.
+fn dev_skill_install_if_wanted(
+    base_location: &FileLocation,
+    base: &Path,
+    home: &Path,
+    auto_accept: bool,
+    ask: impl FnOnce() -> Option<bool>,
+) -> Option<Command> {
+    if dev_skill_installed(base, home) {
+        return None;
+    }
+    let consented = match dev_skill_answer(home) {
+        Some(recorded) => recorded,
+        // An absent answer is not a yes, and a silent skip is the same invisible install by
+        // another name, so say it and name the run that does ask. Nothing is recorded: the
+        // question is still open.
+        None if auto_accept => {
+            println!(
+                "{} {} (run `surfpool start` without --yes to be asked)",
+                green!("Skipped the installer for"),
+                DEV_SKILL_DIR
+            );
+            false
+        }
+        None => match ask() {
+            Some(answer) => {
+                record_dev_skill_answer(home, answer);
+                answer
+            }
+            // A prompt that could not be shown is not an answer, so nothing is recorded.
+            None => false,
+        },
+    };
+    consented.then(|| dev_skill_install_command(base_location))
+}
+
 pub fn scaffold_in_memory_iac(
     framework: &Framework,
     programs: &[ProgramMetadata],
@@ -512,5 +645,227 @@ pub fn scaffold_iac_layout(
         println!("Deployment canceled");
     }
 
+    // Last, so the install only follows a scaffold that finished, and deliberately not keyed to
+    // `confirmation`: declining the deployment is "not now", not "never".
+    let home = get_home_dir();
+    let base = base_location.expect_path_buf();
+    if let Some(command) = dev_skill_install_if_wanted(
+        base_location,
+        &base,
+        Path::new(&home),
+        auto_generate_runbooks,
+        || prompt_for_dev_skill(&theme),
+    ) {
+        spawn_dev_skill_install(command);
+        println!("{} {}", green!("Started installer for"), DEV_SKILL_DIR);
+    }
+
     Ok(())
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use std::{
+        fs::{self, File},
+        path::Path,
+        process::Command,
+        time::{Duration, Instant},
+    };
+
+    use tempfile::TempDir;
+
+    use super::{
+        DEV_SKILL_ACCEPTED_MARKER, DEV_SKILL_AGENT, DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER, DEV_SKILL_DIR,
+        DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER, DEV_SKILL_REPO, FileLocation, dev_skill_answer,
+        dev_skill_install_command, dev_skill_install_if_wanted, spawn_dev_skill_install,
+    };
+
+    /// Every gate test runs against these, never a real home directory.
+    fn scratch() -> (TempDir, TempDir, FileLocation) {
+        let base = TempDir::new().unwrap();
+        let home = TempDir::new().unwrap();
+        let location = FileLocation::from_path_string(base.path().to_str().unwrap()).unwrap();
+        (base, home, location)
+    }
+
+    #[cfg(unix)]
+    fn sh(script: &str) -> Command {
+        let mut command = Command::new("sh");
+        command.args(["-c", script]);
+        command
+    }
+
+    /// #567 supplied this invocation literally; we depart from its text twice. The pin is
+    /// spelled out here so that dropping it has to fail this. `--agent universal` is the
+    /// second: without it the installer detects none of its 77 registered agents, falls
+    /// through to fanout, and drops `.claude/`, a non-hidden `agent/` and `skills-lock.json`
+    /// into a project that asked for none of them.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_install_is_the_command_issue_567_asked_for() {
+        let base = FileLocation::from_path_string("/tmp/surfpool-567-scaffold").unwrap();
+        let command = dev_skill_install_command(&base);
+        assert_eq!(command.get_program(), "npx");
+        assert_eq!(
+            command.get_args().collect::<Vec<_>>(),
+            [
+                "-y",
+                DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER,
+                "add",
+                DEV_SKILL_REPO,
+                "--skill",
+                "*",
+                "--agent",
+                DEV_SKILL_AGENT,
+                "-y"
+            ]
+        );
+        // "*" is the installer's own alias for every agent it knows, so naming one
+        // agent and naming all of them are one typo apart.
+        assert_ne!(DEV_SKILL_AGENT, "*");
+        // The arg-vector assert above spells DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER on both sides, so it moves with
+        // the const and cannot see the value change. This is the only assertion on the pin itself.
+        let (_, version) = DEV_SKILL_INSTALLER
+            .split_once('@')
+            .expect("installer is pinned");
+        let exact = version.split('.').count() == 3
+            && version.bytes().all(|b| b.is_ascii_digit() || b == b'.');
+        assert!(
+            exact,
+            "the installer must be pinned to an exact version, not a range: {version}"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// `surfpool start -m ../elsewhere/txtx.yml` scaffolds a tree the caller is not standing in,
+    /// so the manifest's directory is the target and the shell's is not.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_install_runs_in_the_scaffolded_project_not_the_process_cwd() {
+        let base = FileLocation::from_path_string("/tmp/surfpool-567-scaffold").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            dev_skill_install_command(&base).get_current_dir(),
+            Some(Path::new("/tmp/surfpool-567-scaffold"))
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A skill already on disk is the reviewer's first item: say nothing, do nothing.
+    /// Either scope counts, since a globally installed skill is already available here.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_installed_skill_is_left_alone() {
+        for (in_base, in_home) in [(true, false), (false, true)] {
+            let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+            let root = if in_base { base.path() } else { home.path() };
+            fs::create_dir_all(root.join(DEV_SKILL_DIR)).unwrap();
+            assert!(
+                dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), true, || {
+                    panic!("an installed skill must not prompt")
+                })
+                .is_none(),
+                "installed in base={in_base} home={in_home} still produced an install"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Under `--yes`, the marker decides and only the marker does. The remembered answer is read
+    /// before the flag rather than after, so a CI machine neither relitigates a no hourly nor
+    /// re-asks a user who already said yes. Neither case may reach the prompt.
+    #[test]
+    fn under_the_yes_flag_the_marker_decides() {
+        for declined in [true, false] {
+            let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+            let marker = home.path().join(match declined {
+                true => DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER,
+                false => DEV_SKILL_ACCEPTED_MARKER,
+            });
+            fs::create_dir_all(marker.parent().unwrap()).unwrap();
+            File::create(&marker).unwrap();
+            let install =
+                dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), true, || {
+                    panic!("--yes must not prompt")
+                });
+            assert_eq!(
+                install.is_none(),
+                declined,
+                "--yes with a recorded decline={declined} decided the wrong way"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// `--yes` is not an answer. It pre-answers surfpool's own prompts; it was never consent to
+    /// install a third-party repo nobody was asked about. With no marker on either path it
+    /// installs nothing and writes nothing, so the next interactive scaffold still asks — and it
+    /// still does not prompt, because suppressing the prompt is the half of the flag that is real.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_yes_flag_is_not_an_answer() {
+        let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), true, || {
+                panic!("--yes must not prompt")
+            })
+            .is_none(),
+            "--yes with nothing on record installed a skill nobody was asked about"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_answer(home.path()).is_none(),
+            "a skip recorded as an answer closes a question that is still open"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_declined_prompt_starts_no_install_and_is_remembered() {
+        let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), false, || Some(false))
+                .is_none()
+        );
+        assert!(
+            home.path().join(DEV_SKILL_DECLINED_MARKER).exists(),
+            "a decline that is not written down is a decline that gets asked again"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), false, || {
+                panic!("the recorded decline must not prompt again")
+            })
+            .is_none()
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn an_accepted_prompt_installs_and_is_remembered() {
+        let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), false, || Some(true))
+                .is_some()
+        );
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), false, || {
+                panic!("the recorded accept must not prompt again")
+            })
+            .is_some()
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A prompt that could not be shown is not a decline, so it is not remembered as one and
+    /// the next scaffold still asks.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_undisplayable_prompt_installs_nothing_and_records_nothing() {
+        let (base, home, location) = scratch();
+        assert!(
+            dev_skill_install_if_wanted(&location, base.path(), home.path(), false, || None)
+                .is_none()
+        );
+        assert!(dev_skill_answer(home.path()).is_none());
+    }
+
+    #[cfg(unix)]
+    #[test]
+    fn no_outcome_of_the_install_reaches_the_scaffold() {
+        let started = Instant::now();
+        spawn_dev_skill_install(Command::new("surfpool-567-no-such-binary"));
+        spawn_dev_skill_install(sh("exit 1"));
+        spawn_dev_skill_install(sh("sleep 30"));
+        assert!(
+            started.elapsed() < Duration::from_secs(5),
+            "the scaffold waited on the install: {:?}",
+            started.elapsed()
+        );
+    }
+}