Set up with your agent

You do not have to set Repowise up by hand. Paste this into your coding agent:

That page is a runbook written for agents. It works in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, OpenCode, Hermes, and any other agent that can fetch a URL and run shell commands.

What your agent will do#

1. Check for Python 3.11+ and a git repository, and install the CLI with uv, pipx or pip if repowise --version fails. If the repo already has a .repowise/ index, it runs repowise status and does not re-index.
2. Index the repo with repowise init --yes --no-prose. This builds every layer and renders the documentation from the code's structure, with no model and no spend, even if an API key is set in your environment.
3. Connect itself: the right init flags or repowise agents add command for the host it is running in.
4. Ask you one question (below).
5. Confirm the MCP tools are live by calling get_overview, and run repowise doctor if they are not.
6. Report back with the architecture, the top hotspots, and the health findings worth acting on.

The one question it asks#

No LLM, or an LLM for the documentation, and which provider?

• No LLM is free. The documentation is built from the index and nothing leaves your machine. The graph, git history, code health and dead-code layers are the same either way.
• An LLM writes documentation that explains why the code is shaped the way it is. The agent tells you which environment variable to set for your provider and waits. It never asks you to paste a key into the chat. It then shows you the repowise generate --dry-run cost estimate and spends nothing until you approve it.

If a key is already in your environment, the agent names it and still asks before spending. Subscription providers (claude_cli, codex_cli) and local Ollama need no key. The full provider list is in the runbook.

Already installed?#

If Repowise is on your machine and you only want the repo indexed:

Run `repowise init --yes --no-prose` in this repo. It needs no API key and
spends nothing. Then call get_overview and summarize what this codebase does.

Install the plugin#

The fullest setup is the plugin. One install wires the MCP server, six auto-activating skills, 18 slash commands, and the context hooks together:

/plugin marketplace add repowise-dev/repowise
/plugin install repowise@repowise

There is a Codex plugin too. Both are covered in Agent plugins, including what each skill activates on and what the hooks do.

If you only want the MCP server and none of the rest:

claude mcp add repowise -- repowise mcp

Or commit a project .mcp.json so your whole team picks it up:

{ "mcpServers": { "repowise": { "command": "repowise", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

Other agents#

Six agent targets are wired end to end: repowise agents add --target=<id> writes the MCP config and, where the host reads one, a managed instructions file. The tier is derived from what a descriptor actually implements, not declared:

Full means MCP tools, a managed instructions file, hook-level interception of tool calls, and transcript mining after the fact. Good means MCP tools and a managed instructions file where the host reads one, but no hook-level interception and no transcript mining: the agent can ask repowise questions, but repowise cannot see or annotate what happens in between. Target ids for --target=: claude-code, codex, vscode, cursor, opencode, hermes.

codex mcp add repowise -- repowise mcp

repowise init --codex

repowise agents add --target=cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "repowise": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "repowise",
      "args": ["mcp", "/path/to/your/project"]
    }
  }
}

repowise agents add --target=opencode

repowise agents add --target=hermes

repowise agents print-config claude-code

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "repowise": {
      "command": "repowise",
      "args": ["mcp", "/path/to/your/project"]
    }
  }
}

What agents should know about the CLI#

The behaviors that most often trip up an unattended run, all of them deliberate:

Repowise also writes .claude/CLAUDE.md during init, and a managed AGENTS.md with --codex or --agents, so agents that read those files get the tool guidance without any MCP call at all.

Machine-readable docs#

This documentation site serves itself in agent-friendly form:

Start with llms.txt to find the right page, then fetch that page's .md, or take llms-full.txt when you want everything at once. Every page also has a Copy page control at the top, which copies its Markdown or opens it in Claude or ChatGPT.

What to do next#