Install

Add the OpenCanon skill, then let setup install the engine runtime for the current machine.

Prerequisites

• Bun 1.3.13 to execute the bundled CLI and daemon.
• A Git repository (Git-backed discovery is the default).
• An agent host with a skills directory: Claude Code, OpenCode, or Codex. Standalone CLI use without an agent host is also supported.
• No npm install is needed after cloning the skill.

Add the skill

Use the skills.sh CLI to install the OpenCanon skill into the current repository.

01npx skills add nick-vi/opencanon --skill opencanon -a codex -y

The installed skill bootstraps the CLI, validators, daemon, UI assets, and engine runtime from the signed release assets during setup. Bun is the runtime, not a package installation step.

Install engine runtime

Release installs use a manifest. Setup detects the current platform, selects the matching engine asset, verifies SHA-256, and writes the binary into the skill runtime.

01bun .agents/skills/opencanon/scripts/opencanon.ts setup --yes --hooks codex --manifest https://github.com/nick-vi/opencanon/releases/latest/download/opencanon-runtime-manifest.json

Initialize a repository

Run setup in the repository root. It creates starter docs, decisions, validators, fixtures, cache ignores, and optional hooks.

Commit the docs, decisions, validators, fixtures, hook config, skill wrapper files, the skill-local .gitignore, skills-lock.json, and package script. Runtime assets under .agents/skills/opencanon/runtime/ are ignored by .agents/skills/opencanon/.gitignore. Generated state under .opencanon/ is ignored by the root .gitignore.

01bun .agents/skills/opencanon/scripts/opencanon.ts setup --yes --hooks codex

Start the daemon

The daemon runs per repository. Repo state lives under .opencanon/ and is ignored by Git; the supervisor registry lives at ~/.opencanon/daemons.json.

01bun run opencanon daemon start
02bun run opencanon daemon status
03bun run opencanon daemon open

Release producer flow

Maintainers publish through one script so versions, release checks, tags, GitHub workflow watching, and asset verification stay coherent. The release workflow builds engine assets for every supported target and uploads the manifest, runtime archive, channel files, and checksums.

01bun run release:publish -- 0.3.14

Next

Continue with the Quickstart to load context, run validators, and produce findings.