diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58bf370
--- /dev/null
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# Installing tools-public
+
+The installer registers the tools in this repo as user-level Claude Code slash commands by writing them into `~/.claude/commands/`. After install, each tool is invoked as `/<name>` from any Claude Code session.
+
+## Install
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/install.sh | bash
+```
+
+Drops 37 commands into `~/.claude/commands/`. Re-run anytime to update — existing files are overwritten with the latest version. **Restart Claude Code** afterwards to pick up new commands (Claude Code does not auto-reload `commands/`).
+
+## Uninstall
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/uninstall.sh | bash
+```
+
+Removes only the files this installer placed. Anything else under `~/.claude/commands/` is left alone, and the directory itself is preserved.
+
+## Sample output
+
+```text
+tools-public — Claude Code slash commands
+==========================================
+
+A curated set of prompt-based "tools" from github.com/cppalliance/tools-public.
+Each command is a markdown prompt invoked via /<name> inside Claude Code,
+covering code review, document tightening, plan refinement, persona voices,
+adaptive interviews, tutorials, and more.
+
+Mode:   install
+Target: /Users/martin/.claude/commands
+Source: downloading cppalliance/tools-public@master...
+
+Will install 37 commands to /Users/martin/.claude/commands
+
+  + /advocatus                        Advocatus Diaboli, examiner, appointed adversary of the cause
+  + /auditor                          Mechanical compliance checker for WG21 papers
+  + /code-review                      Language-agnostic code review with adversarial challenge
+  + /lib-review                       Design analysis of open source projects using 38 diagnostic tests
+  + /refine-plan                      Refine any plan through numbering, audit, and compression
+  + /tighten                          Compress a document to half its length while preserving voice
+  + /voice                            A tool that builds tools.
+  + /voice:voice-of-william-gibson    On load: you are William Gibson.
+  + /voice:voice-of-franz-kafka       On load: you are Franz Kafka.
+  + /interview                        Generate role-specific adaptive interview protocols.
+  + /tutor                            Curriculum architect, scout of the world's best teaching
+  ... (26 more)
+
+Legend:  + new   ↻ overwrite (update)
+
+Proceed with install? [y/N] y
+Installed 37 commands to /Users/martin/.claude/commands.
+Restart Claude Code to pick them up.
+```
+
+On re-run, the `+` markers become `↻` for files already present.
+
+## Options
+
+Pass these as env vars before the curl pipe (or as flags to a local `bash install.sh`):
+
+| Env var | Effect |
+| --- | --- |
+| `INSTALL_YES=1` | Skip the `[y/N]` confirmation |
+| `DEST=/path`    | Install elsewhere than `~/.claude/commands` |
+| `LOCAL_SRC=/path` | Use a local checkout instead of downloading the tarball |
+| `UNINSTALL=1`   | Run install.sh in uninstall mode (same as `uninstall.sh`) |
+
+## What's not included
+
+The novelist toolchain (`tools/novelist/`) is intentionally excluded — it's a coupled multi-prompt + Python pipeline that expects a per-book workspace and doesn't fit a one-shot command install.
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04893fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,299 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# tools-public installer — Claude Code slash commands from
+# github.com/cppalliance/tools-public.
+#
+# Install:
+#   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/install.sh | bash
+#
+# Uninstall (removes the same set, leaves your own commands alone):
+#   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/uninstall.sh | bash
+#   # or:
+#   UNINSTALL=1 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/install.sh | bash
+#
+# Re-run install to update to the latest versions; existing files are overwritten.
+# Env knobs:
+#   INSTALL_YES=1   skip the [y/N] confirmation
+#   UNINSTALL=1     remove instead of install
+#   DEST=/path      override ~/.claude/commands
+#   LOCAL_SRC=/path use a local checkout instead of downloading the tarball
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+REPO="cppalliance/tools-public"
+BRANCH="master"
+TARBALL_URL="https://github.com/${REPO}/archive/refs/heads/${BRANCH}.tar.gz"
+DEST="${DEST:-${HOME}/.claude/commands}"
+LOCAL_SRC="${LOCAL_SRC:-}"
+
+# Mode: parse --uninstall flag or UNINSTALL env var.
+MODE="install"
+for arg in "$@"; do
+  case "$arg" in
+    --uninstall) MODE="uninstall" ;;
+    --help|-h)
+      sed -n '2,20p' "$0"
+      exit 0
+      ;;
+  esac
+done
+[[ "${UNINSTALL:-}" == "1" ]] && MODE="uninstall"
+
+TOP_LEVEL=(
+  advocatus.md
+  auditor.md
+  boost-review.md
+  btc-talk.md
+  code-cleanup.md
+  code-review.md
+  herald.md
+  is-this-cpp.md
+  lib-review.md
+  normalize.md
+  refine-plan.md
+  research.md
+  review-paper.md
+  tighten.md
+)
+
+FAMILIES=(voice interview tutor)
+
+die() { echo "error: $*" >&2; exit 1; }
+
+extract_description() {
+  local file="$1"
+  local desc=""
+
+  desc="$(awk '
+    BEGIN { in_fm = 0; line = 0 }
+    { line++ }
+    line == 1 && /^---[[:space:]]*$/ { in_fm = 1; next }
+    in_fm && /^---[[:space:]]*$/ { exit }
+    in_fm && /^description:/ {
+      sub(/^description:[[:space:]]*/, "")
+      gsub(/^"|"$/, "")
+      print
+      exit
+    }
+  ' "$file")"
+
+  if [[ -z "$desc" ]]; then
+    desc="$(awk '
+      BEGIN { seen = 0; in_comment = 0 }
+      /^#[^!]/ { seen = 1; next }
+      /<!--/ && !/-->/ { in_comment = 1; next }
+      in_comment && /-->/ { in_comment = 0; next }
+      in_comment { next }
+      /^<!--.*-->[[:space:]]*$/ { next }
+      seen && NF > 0 && !/^---/ && !/^```/ && !/^!\[/ && !/^\|/ { print; exit }
+    ' "$file")"
+  fi
+
+  desc="${desc//\`/}"
+  desc="${desc//\*\*/}"
+
+  desc="$(printf '%s' "$desc" | awk '{
+    n = index($0, ". ")
+    if (n > 0 && n < 90) print substr($0, 1, n)
+    else print substr($0, 1, 90)
+  }')"
+
+  printf '%s' "$desc"
+}
+
+# NAMES[i] = slash-command name (with leading /)
+# SOURCES[i] = path to source .md inside the extracted tree
+# TARGETS[i] = absolute path under $DEST
+plan() {
+  local src="$1"
+  NAMES=()
+  SOURCES=()
+  TARGETS=()
+
+  for f in "${TOP_LEVEL[@]}"; do
+    [[ -f "$src/$f" ]] || continue
+    NAMES+=("/${f%.md}")
+    SOURCES+=("$src/$f")
+    TARGETS+=("$DEST/$f")
+  done
+
+  for family in "${FAMILIES[@]}"; do
+    if [[ -f "$src/$family/$family.md" ]]; then
+      NAMES+=("/$family")
+      SOURCES+=("$src/$family/$family.md")
+      TARGETS+=("$DEST/$family.md")
+    fi
+    if [[ -d "$src/$family" ]]; then
+      for f in "$src/$family"/*.md; do
+        [[ -e "$f" ]] || continue
+        local base
+        base="$(basename "$f" .md)"
+        [[ "$base" == "$family" ]] && continue
+        NAMES+=("/$family:$base")
+        SOURCES+=("$f")
+        TARGETS+=("$DEST/$family/$base.md")
+      done
+    fi
+  done
+}
+
+print_banner() {
+  cat <<EOF
+
+tools-public — Claude Code slash commands
+==========================================
+
+A curated set of prompt-based "tools" from github.com/cppalliance/tools-public.
+Each command is a markdown prompt invoked via /<name> inside Claude Code,
+covering code review, document tightening, plan refinement, persona voices,
+adaptive interviews, tutorials, and more.
+
+EOF
+}
+
+print_plan() {
+  local action_word="$1"   # "install" or "remove"
+  local present_count=0
+  local i
+  for i in "${!TARGETS[@]}"; do
+    [[ -f "${TARGETS[$i]}" ]] && present_count=$((present_count + 1))
+  done
+
+  local max_width=0
+  for name in "${NAMES[@]}"; do
+    (( ${#name} > max_width )) && max_width=${#name}
+  done
+
+  if [[ "$action_word" == "install" ]]; then
+    echo "Will install ${#NAMES[@]} commands to $DEST"
+    if (( present_count > 0 )); then
+      echo "($present_count already present — those will be overwritten with the latest version.)"
+    fi
+  else
+    echo "Will remove ${present_count} commands from $DEST"
+    if (( present_count < ${#NAMES[@]} )); then
+      echo "($((${#NAMES[@]} - present_count)) listed below are not currently installed and will be skipped.)"
+    fi
+  fi
+  echo
+
+  for i in "${!NAMES[@]}"; do
+    local desc marker=" "
+    desc="$(extract_description "${SOURCES[$i]}")"
+    if [[ "$action_word" == "install" ]]; then
+      [[ -f "${TARGETS[$i]}" ]] && marker="↻" || marker="+"
+    else
+      [[ -f "${TARGETS[$i]}" ]] && marker="-" || marker=" "
+    fi
+    printf "  %s %-${max_width}s  %s\n" "$marker" "${NAMES[$i]}" "$desc"
+  done
+  echo
+
+  if [[ "$action_word" == "install" ]]; then
+    echo "Legend:  + new   ↻ overwrite (update)"
+  else
+    echo "Legend:  - will be removed   (blank) not installed, skipped"
+  fi
+  echo
+}
+
+confirm() {
+  local prompt="$1"
+  if [[ "${INSTALL_YES:-}" == "1" ]]; then
+    return 0
+  fi
+  if [[ ! -e /dev/tty ]]; then
+    die "no tty for confirmation; re-run with INSTALL_YES=1 to skip the prompt"
+  fi
+  local answer
+  read -r -p "$prompt [y/N] " answer </dev/tty
+  [[ "$answer" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]
+}
+
+do_install() {
+  mkdir -p "$DEST"
+  local i count=0
+  for i in "${!TARGETS[@]}"; do
+    local target="${TARGETS[$i]}"
+    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$target")"
+    cp "${SOURCES[$i]}" "$target"
+    count=$((count + 1))
+  done
+  echo "Installed $count commands to $DEST."
+  echo "Restart Claude Code to pick them up."
+}
+
+do_uninstall() {
+  local i removed=0 skipped=0
+  for i in "${!TARGETS[@]}"; do
+    local target="${TARGETS[$i]}"
+    if [[ -f "$target" ]]; then
+      rm -f "$target"
+      removed=$((removed + 1))
+    else
+      skipped=$((skipped + 1))
+    fi
+  done
+
+  # Drop empty family subdirs we may have created.
+  for family in "${FAMILIES[@]}"; do
+    if [[ -d "$DEST/$family" ]]; then
+      rmdir "$DEST/$family" 2>/dev/null || true
+    fi
+  done
+
+  echo "Removed $removed commands from $DEST."
+  (( skipped > 0 )) && echo "Skipped $skipped (not currently installed)."
+}
+
+acquire_source() {
+  if [[ -n "$LOCAL_SRC" ]]; then
+    SRC="$LOCAL_SRC/tools"
+    [[ -d "$SRC" ]] || die "LOCAL_SRC=$LOCAL_SRC has no tools/ subdirectory"
+    echo "Source: local checkout at $LOCAL_SRC"
+    return
+  fi
+
+  command -v curl >/dev/null || die "curl is required"
+  command -v tar  >/dev/null || die "tar is required"
+
+  TMP="$(mktemp -d)"
+  trap 'rm -rf "$TMP"' EXIT
+
+  echo "Source: downloading ${REPO}@${BRANCH}..."
+  curl -fsSL "$TARBALL_URL" | tar -xz -C "$TMP"
+
+  SRC="$(find "$TMP" -maxdepth 2 -type d -name tools | head -n 1)"
+  [[ -n "$SRC" && -d "$SRC" ]] || die "could not locate tools/ in extracted tarball"
+}
+
+main() {
+  print_banner
+  echo "Mode:   $MODE"
+  echo "Target: $DEST"
+
+  acquire_source
+
+  plan "$SRC"
+  [[ ${#NAMES[@]} -gt 0 ]] || die "nothing to process"
+
+  echo
+  if [[ "$MODE" == "install" ]]; then
+    print_plan "install"
+    if confirm "Proceed with install?"; then
+      do_install
+    else
+      echo "Aborted. Nothing installed."
+      exit 1
+    fi
+  else
+    print_plan "remove"
+    if confirm "Proceed with uninstall?"; then
+      do_uninstall
+    else
+      echo "Aborted. Nothing removed."
+      exit 1
+    fi
+  fi
+}
+
+main "$@"
diff --git a/uninstall.sh b/uninstall.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42e3860
--- /dev/null
+++ b/uninstall.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Thin wrapper: download install.sh and run it in uninstall mode.
+#
+# Usage:
+#   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppalliance/tools-public/master/uninstall.sh | bash
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+REPO="cppalliance/tools-public"
+BRANCH="master"
+INSTALL_URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${REPO}/${BRANCH}/install.sh"
+
+command -v curl >/dev/null || { echo "error: curl is required" >&2; exit 1; }
+
+curl -fsSL "$INSTALL_URL" | UNINSTALL=1 bash