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Quickstart

Last updated: 2026-09-07

Ten minutes from an existing project to live checks.

1. Install the programs the checks run

The checks do not bundle a linter or a test runner; they run your platform's own, and the push gate refuses with an install line when one is missing. Install them first, so your first push is not stopped by a missing program after you have already committed.

Your project Install
iOS, macOS Xcode (the build seat runs xcodebuild), then brew install swiftlint swift-format
Android brew install ktlint (detekt comes through the Gradle plugin)
React Native, Web npm install in the project — tsc, eslint and prettier are run from its own node_modules
Python pip install ruff mypy pytest — ruff and mypy are required; without pytest the tests seat falls back to unittest
every project npm install -g jscpd@5.1.2 — the duplicate-code seat

gh (brew install gh) is optional: without it the branch-protection check prints that it was skipped rather than failing. The pinned versions, and what each program is used for, are in enforcement/TOOLCHAIN.md.

2. Get the newest release

One command. It reads the newest version from the releases page, fetches that release, and leaves it at ~/.cache/coast-standards/<version>/. No clone is needed.

v=$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/Up-Coast/coast-standards/releases/latest | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["tag_name"].lstrip("v"))') && mkdir -p ~/.cache/coast-standards && curl -fsSL "https://github.com/Up-Coast/coast-standards/archive/refs/tags/v$v.tar.gz" | tar xz -C ~/.cache/coast-standards && rm -rf ~/.cache/coast-standards/"$v" && mv ~/.cache/coast-standards/coast-standards-"$v" ~/.cache/coast-standards/"$v" && echo "Coast Standards $v is at ~/.cache/coast-standards/$v"

The last line prints the version. The commands below use $v from the same shell. (Contributors who want to change the rules or the checks clone the repository instead; see CONTRIBUTING.md.)

3. See what would change

Nothing is written yet. This prints a list of every file the installer would add or replace in your project.

python3 ~/.cache/coast-standards/$v/enforcement/adopt.py /path/to/your/project --dry-run

The installer works out your platform from your project files. If it cannot, add --platform ios (or macos, android, react-native, web, python).

4. Install

python3 ~/.cache/coast-standards/$v/enforcement/adopt.py /path/to/your/project

This takes a few minutes on a first run because it builds your project once to measure where it stands today. It:

  • adds the checks and the git hooks to your project
  • adds a linter configuration for your platform, if you did not have one
  • adds a copy of the rules for your platform at docs/domain-rules.md
  • records the current state of your code as a starting line (more on this below)
  • writes a short block into your CLAUDE.md so AI coding agents know the rules
  • records the version it installed in .coast/standards-version
  • scans every file for secrets and stops if it finds any

Its last line says which version your project now carries.

5. Commit and push

git add -A
git commit -m "Adopt Coast Standards"
git push

The first push runs every check. It should pass, because anything your project was already doing wrong has been recorded as a starting line rather than treated as new.

What "starting line" means

An existing project usually has warnings, style findings, and a few duplicated blocks already. Rather than demand you fix all of them before the first push, the installer counts them and writes the counts down with a date 90 days out. From then on the counts may go down but never up. After the 90 days, the counts must be zero.

Updating later

Your project holds its own copy of the checks, like a dependency, and the copy you installed from can fetch any other release itself:

python3 ~/.cache/coast-standards/$v/enforcement/adopt.py /path/to/your/project --release latest

Name a version instead of latest to take that one (--release 1.1.0). The installer downloads the release into the cache and runs it. It replaces its own files, leaves anything you edited alone, and lowers any starting-line count that has fallen. Then commit and push.

For AI coding agents

If you would rather have an agent do the install, copy the folder skills/adopt-coast-standards/ from any release into ~/.claude/skills/ (for every project) or into your project's .claude/skills/. The skill holds only where the releases are and the commands above, and tells the agent to dry-run and ask you the few real questions first. The rules themselves never live in the skill; they live in your project's copy. See Working with AI coding agents.

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