Skip to content
archcore logo archcore logo archcore

Quick Start

Install

Section titled “Install”
Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://archcore.ai/install.sh | bash

Initialize Your Project

Section titled “Initialize Your Project”
Terminal window
cd your-project
archcore init

This does three things:

  1. Creates .archcore/ directory with settings.json
  2. Auto-detects your coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.)
  3. Installs MCP server config and session hooks for detected agents

Create Your First Document

Section titled “Create Your First Document”

The easiest way is to ask your AI agent:

“Create an ADR about using PostgreSQL for our database”

The agent will use the create_document MCP tool and generate a document from the ADR template with the proper structure, frontmatter, and required sections.

You can also create documents manually:

Terminal window
mkdir -p .archcore/database

Create .archcore/database/use-postgres.adr.md:

---
title: Use PostgreSQL as Primary Database
status: accepted
---


## Context


We need a reliable relational database for our application.


## Decision


Use PostgreSQL for all persistent data storage.


## Alternatives Considered


- MySQL — fewer advanced features (JSONB, arrays, CTEs)
- MongoDB — doesn't fit our relational data model


## Consequences


### Positive
- Strong ACID guarantees
- Excellent ecosystem and tooling
- JSONB for semi-structured data when needed


### Negative
- Requires schema migrations for changes
- Horizontal scaling is more complex than NoSQL

Validate

Section titled “Validate”

Check that everything is structured correctly:

Terminal window
archcore validate

Use With Your Agent

Section titled “Use With Your Agent”

Start a conversation with your coding agent. It now has access to your .archcore/ documents through MCP.

Try asking:

  • “What architectural decisions have been made?”
  • “Create a rule for database migrations based on the PostgreSQL ADR”
  • “List all documents and their relations”

Update

Section titled “Update”

To update to the latest version:

Terminal window
archcore update

What’s Next

Section titled “What’s Next”