Quickstart

This focused journey installs Engineer Kit natively in the current project and starts one software task in Claude Code or Codex.

Before you start

Complete Installation and Onboarding, or verify the three required states now:

ak --version
ak whoami
ak licenses

ak whoami must show the intended account, and Engineer Kit must appear in ak licenses. Your selected runtime must also be installed and signed in. These checks do not print your stored secret. An unauthenticated ak whoami result still exits 0, so check the displayed state rather than the exit code alone.

Install and run

Open a project

Change to a project where you can review and revert changes. The commands below use project scope and native runtime delivery.

Install Engineer Kit

ak kit init engineer --target claude-code

ak kit init engineer --target codex

The authenticated remote registry and stable kit channel are the defaults. Review the preview and confirm it. Success reports the kit name, output location, install mode, scope, and files written. If the CLI prints warnings, read them before continuing.

Reload your assistant

Start a new Claude Code or Codex session in the same project so it discovers the installed skill.

Invoke `ak:cook`

/ak:cook Add a health-check endpoint

$ak:cook Add a health-check endpoint

Claude Code uses /ak:...; Codex uses $ak:.... The kit name remains plain in CLI commands such as ak kit init engineer.

Expected result

The assistant recognizes ak:cook, reads the task and current project context, and begins the skill workflow. Review its proposed scope and any file changes as you would for other coding work. The quickstart is complete once the skill has started successfully; the result of the sample task depends on your project.

If the skill is not recognized

Confirm the installation summary named engineer and your intended target.
Confirm you are in the same project, scope, and delivery mode used for the install, and that the selected Skill set includes ak:cook.
Confirm the CLI and Kit versions and release channels are the ones you intended.
Start a new assistant session in the same project.
Run ak doctor --exit-on-fail and address any runtime or Kit check it reports.
If install ownership conflicts were reported, stop and inspect them; do not immediately retry with --force.

If a managed operation printed a backup ID, preserve it until you have verified the project. Inspect and preview the recovery point with ak backups show <backup-id> and ak recover <backup-id> --dry-run; see Onboarding recovery for the apply command and restore limits.

Keep the CLI and Kit current

The binary, project-owned content, and an installed runtime Kit are separate layers. ak self-update changes the CLI binary; it does not refresh files in .claude, .codex, or another runtime destination. ak update handles AgentKit-owned project content, while ak kit refresh re-emits one installed Kit route with its recorded target, scope, delivery mode, and selected Skills.

Use Updating AgentKit and Kits to choose the layer you actually intend to change. If files remain unchanged, inspect the route and ownership evidence before reinstalling or deleting runtime content.

Continue

Onboarding explains authentication methods, setup, scope, and recovery in more detail.
Installing kits covers skill selection and refresh behavior.
CLI reference contains the exact released flags and command behavior.

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