Installation Guide

Get OpenPAUL running in your project.

Quick Start

npx openpaul

This scaffolds the .openpaul/ directory with everything you need.

CLI Options

-n, --name - Project name (defaults to directory name)
-p, --path - Target directory (default: current)
--preset - Template preset: minimal or full
-f, --force - Skip prompts and overwrite existing files
-i, --interactive - Force interactive mode
-v, --verbose - Enable verbose output

Examples

npx openpaul                           # Interactive mode
npx openpaul --name my-project         # Skip name prompt
npx openpaul --path ./app              # Target directory
npx openpaul -n my-project -p ./app    # Combined options
npx openpaul --preset minimal          # Minimal template
npx openpaul --preset full             # Full template

What Gets Created

Running npx openpaul scaffolds:

.openpaul/ └── state.json # Project registry (name, version, timestamps)

opencode.json # OpenCode config (includes "plugin": ["openpaul"]) .opencode/ # OpenCode folders (commands, rules, skills, etc.)

Plugin Installation

npx openpaul automatically adds "plugin": ["openpaul"] to opencode.json. Just restart OpenCode after scaffolding to load the plugin. /openpaul:* commands will appear in the TUI command list.

Verify Installation

CLI: Run npx openpaul --version
Plugin: Run /openpaul:help inside OpenCode (it should autocomplete)

Local development (from source)

If you are working on OpenPAUL locally, add a local plugin file under .opencode/plugins/:

.opencode/plugins/openpaul.ts

import plugin from "/absolute/path/to/openpaul/dist/index.js"
export default plugin

With OpenCARL (Recommended)

For the best experience, use OpenPAUL with OpenCARL:

# Initialize OpenPAUL
npx openpaul

# Initialize OpenCARL
npx opencarl --local   # Current project only
npx opencarl --global  # All projects

OpenCARL auto-loads OpenPAUL rules when it detects .openpaul/ directory.