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Quickstart

Get Anvil running in your project in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites​

  • Node.js 20.0.0 or later
  • pnpm, npm, or yarn
  • A TypeScript or JavaScript project

Installation​

# Clone and build (pre-release)
git clone https://github.com/EddaCraft/anvil-001.git
cd anvil-001 && pnpm install && pnpm build

# Link CLI globally
pnpm link:cli

Once published to npm, installation will be:

# Using pnpm (recommended)
pnpm add -D @eddacraft/anvil-cli

# Using npm
npm install -D @eddacraft/anvil-cli

Initialise Anvil​

Run the interactive setup wizard:

cd /path/to/your/project
anvil init

This will:

  1. Detect your project type
  2. Create an .anvilrc configuration file
  3. Set up default gate checks
  4. Create the .anvil/ directory

Expected output:

🔨 Initialising Anvil in current project...

Detected environment:
  Project: my-app
  Package Manager: pnpm
  Git: ✓
  TypeScript: ✓

✓ Anvil initialised successfully!

Created files:
  ✓ .anvilrc
  ✓ .anvil/

Next steps:
  anvil status    View current configuration
  anvil check     Run checks on changed files
  anvil watch     Start watching for changes

Your First Check​

Run Anvil once to see current issues:

anvil check --changed

Expected output (clean project):

Checking architecture... ✓
Checking anti-patterns... ✓
Checking secrets... ✓

All gates passed.

Expected output (issues found):

Checking architecture... ✓
Checking anti-patterns...
  ⚠ [AP-003] Explicit any type detected
    src/utils/parser.ts:42
    Using 'any' defeats type safety
    Fix: Define a proper type or use 'unknown'

1 warning found.

Start Watch Mode​

For the best experience, run Anvil in watch mode:

anvil watch --source

Anvil will now validate your code every time you save a file.

Tip: Run this in a dedicated terminal pane or use the VS Code extension.

Configuration​

Your .anvilrc controls which checks run:

{
  "checks": {
    "architecture": {
      "enabled": true,
      "baseline": ".anvil/baseline.json"
    },
    "antipattern": {
      "enabled": true,
      "patterns": ["AP-001", "AP-003", "AP-004", "AP-006"]
    },
    "secrets": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  },
  "watch": {
    "patterns": ["src/**/*.ts"],
    "debounceMs": 300
  }
}

See Configuration for full options.

Next Steps​

Need help? Check Troubleshooting or open an issue.