Install
Install it in a couple of minutes.
You need Node.js 18 or newer, and nothing else. npx downloads only the installer and the kit, about 100 kB with no dependencies. Whichever way you run it, you review every change before anything is written.
§01 · With your agent
Let your coding agent install it.
Paste this into your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI…) in your project.
Install the Agent Engineering Kit in this project. Read and follow https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vishalguptax/agent-engineering-kit/main/docs/install-with-an-agent.md. Ask me before anything that changes my files.
- It gathers evidence. The agent reads your project to work out its stack, commands, folders and conventions, and notes where it found each one.
- It asks only what the code can’t tell it, such as the project’s purpose, domain terms and unwritten team rules, then shows you the draft.
- It runs the real installer. It previews with
--dry-run, walks you through every conflict, and installs only when you say so. It never copies kit files by hand, so backups, update and uninstall all work.
§02 · Yourself
Run the installer.
This opens the installer in your browser. There’s nothing to clone or install first.
npx agent-engineering-kit
- Choose where it goes: a project folder, or
~/.claudefor all your projects (Claude Code only). - See what’s already there: the AI tools the project uses, existing rules, git status and stack.
- Pick your AI tools. Tools found in the project are pre-selected, and each card shows what that tool gets.
- Pick the parts. Each one has a plain-English “What is this?”.
- Describe your project for the agent (optional), and confirm the pre-commit checks if you chose them.
- Review every change as a diff, with the tools that read each file. Nothing is written until you confirm.
- Install. Files that change are backed up first;
AGENTS.md,CLAUDE.mdand settings files are merged, never overwritten. - Copy the follow-up commands for your tools.
§03 · Terminal, SSH and CI
Same steps, no browser.
All modes use the same core, so they behave identically.
| You have | Run |
|---|---|
| A desktop with a browser | npx agent-engineering-kit |
| Only a terminal (SSH, server, container) | npx agent-engineering-kit --terminal (used automatically over SSH or on Linux without a display) |
| A script or CI | npx agent-engineering-kit --target ./my-app --tools claude-code,codex --preset recommended --yes |
| A clone of the repo | node installer/dist/index.js |
Flags
--target <path> Install into this project folder
--global Install into ~/.claude (Claude Code only)
--preset <name> recommended | minimal | everything
--components a,b,c Exact components (dependencies are added automatically)
--tools a,b,c AI tools to install for; --list-tools shows the ids
--dry-run Show what would change; write nothing
--yes Don't ask for confirmation
--on-conflict <choice> keep (default) | kit | kit-new
--resolve <path>=<choice> The choice for one conflicting file; repeat for more
--checks <file> Commands for the pre-commit checks, one "name: command" per line
--project-info <file> Markdown describing your project, added to AGENTS.md once
--uninstall Undo the kit's changes using the install record
--terminal Guided prompts in the terminal
--no-open GUI: print the URL instead of opening a browser
--list-tools Show the supported AI tools and what each one gets
Exit codes: 0 done or nothing to do, 1 stopped (an error, a blocker, or you said no), 2 bad flags.
§04 · Global install
Once for all your projects.
With --global (or by choosing ~/.claude in the GUI), everything goes under ~/.claude and applies to every project you open in Claude Code. The installer rewrites the project-relative paths to point there, and the preview shows the rewritten text. Global installs are Claude Code only.
§05 · Update and uninstall
Run it again.
- Update. The installer re-plans against the current kit, so you review the changes like any install. Files the kit no longer installs are removed.
- Add or remove parts or tools. Only what nothing else still needs is removed;
AGENTS.mdand a shared skills folder stay while any selected tool reads them. - Uninstall with
--uninstallor the Uninstall button. It removes only what the kit added, restores files it modified from their backup, and keeps your own edits.
§06 · Releases
Published from main, by CI.
Every push runs the tests on Node 18 and 22. When the version in package.json isn’t on npm yet, GitHub Actions publishes it using npm Trusted Publishing, so no npm token is stored, then tags the commit and creates a GitHub release from the changelog. The current version is 1.2.3. What changed in each release.