How do I add menu items within a .install file
You can follow the example from the profiles/standard/standard.install file and use code like this inside your implementation of hook_install():

// Create a Home link in the main menu.
$item = array(
  'link_title' =&gt; st('Home'),
  'link_path' =&gt; '&lt;front&gt;',
  'menu_name' =&gt; 'main-menu',
);
menu_link_save($item);