In January 2025, Elam D. F. enhanced the VLSI toolchain setup for the ucb-bar/chipyard repository by introducing an opt-in initialization process for hammer-mentor-plugins. Using Shell scripting and leveraging skills in build systems and DevOps, Elam restructured the setup workflow to initialize plugins only when the 'calibre' tool is specified, rather than by default. This approach removed the submodule reference from .gitmodules and updated the initialization script, streamlining repository management. The work improved configurability and deployment reliability across diverse environments, reflecting a thoughtful, modular engineering approach that addressed real-world CI and direct deployment challenges without introducing new bugs.