Quick Start (L1 Vibe Coder)

Get AI-powered governance inside Claude Code in 30 seconds. No dependencies. No config. No runtime.

Install

claude plugin marketplace add nxtg-ai/forge-plugin
claude plugin install forge

That's it. The plugin loads 22 agents, 21 slash commands, 29 knowledge skills, and 6 governance hooks. Everything is pure markdown — no build step, no compilation.

Your First Command

Open Claude Code in any project and run:

/forge:status

You'll see:

• Project health score — A through F grade based on 8 quality dimensions
• Git status — branch, uncommitted changes, recent commits
• Test results — test count, pass rate, coverage (if available)
• Security scan — patterns for secrets, unsafe code, dependency vulnerabilities

Find What's Missing

/forge:gap-analysis

This scans your project across 5 dimensions and tells you exactly what's missing:

Dimension	What It Checks
Testing	File ratio, coverage reports, missing test files
Documentation	README presence, inline docs, API documentation
Security	Hardcoded secrets, eval/exec usage, npm audit
Architecture	File organization, large files, circular patterns
Performance	Bundle size, dependency count, build configuration

Each gap comes with an actionable recommendation and priority level.

Build a Feature

/forge:feature "add user authentication"

This spawns a multi-agent team inside Claude Code:

1. Planner designs the architecture and breaks work into steps
2. Builder implements the feature with tests
3. Guardian runs quality checks on the output
4. Security reviews for vulnerabilities

You watch. They coordinate. The output is production-ready code with tests.

What's Running Behind the Scenes

The plugin installs an MCP governance server that provides 8 tools:

Tool	What It Does
forge_get_health	Composite health score (0-100, A-F grade)
forge_get_git_status	Branch, commits, clean status
forge_get_code_metrics	Lines, files, dependencies, test ratio
forge_run_tests	Auto-detects runner (vitest/jest/pytest)
forge_security_scan	Pattern-based secret and vulnerability detection
forge_list_checkpoints	Saved governance snapshots
forge_get_governance_state	Full governance state object
forge_open_dashboard	Generate and launch HTML health dashboard

These tools run automatically — agents and hooks call them as needed. You don't invoke them directly.

Key Commands

Command	What It Does
/forge:status	Project health at a glance
/forge:gap-analysis	Find missing tests, docs, security gaps
/forge:feature "desc"	Multi-agent feature development
/forge:test	Run tests with analysis
/forge:checkpoint	Save restorable project state
/forge:deploy	Deploy with pre-flight checks
/forge:docs-audit	Check documentation coverage

When to Upgrade

L1 works standalone. You never need to install anything else.

But if you start running multiple AI tools on the same codebase (Claude Code + Codex + Gemini), you'll hit file conflicts and lost context. That's when L2 Pro Builder earns its keep.

Signs you need L2:

• Two AI tools edited the same file and one overwrote the other
• You're manually copy-pasting context between tools
• You want a task board that tracks what each tool is working on
• You need decisions and patterns to persist across sessions

Next Steps

• Upgrade to Pro Builder (L2) — Multi-tool orchestration
• Slash Commands Reference — All 21 commands in detail
• Agents Reference — When to use each of the 22 agents