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Engineering leadsStandard ownersDevelopers12 min read

This guide takes you from no account to a working setup:

  • a rulebook that fits your stack;
  • one repository whose coding agents follow it;
  • a check that runs in CI.

Each step links to the page that covers it in full.

You need:

  • an invitation to the early access, or an email you can receive mail at;
  • a repository on your computer, with git and Node.js 22 or later.

That’s all. The CLI runs with npx, so there’s nothing to install globally.

  1. Create your account.

    Go to app.groundrule.dev and choose Create an account. Enter your name, your work email and a password of at least 10 characters. Groundrule emails you a confirmation link. Open it and choose Confirm and continue.

    The sign-up form with name, work email and password.

    More: Create your account.

  2. Answer four onboarding questions.

    • About you: your name and your role.
    • Workspace: your company, the workspace name, and its URL name (for example acme-payments, which becomes app.groundrule.dev/acme-payments).
    • Your stack: languages, infrastructure, coding agents, and where your code is hosted.
    • Packs: Groundrule preselects the packs that fit your stack. Keep them; you can change them any time.

    Finish with Create your workspace. You land on the dashboard, with the packs’ standards already in your rulebook.

    Step 4 of onboarding: recommended packs such as AI coding agent hygiene, Docker, GitHub Actions, HTTP API design, React and Security baseline.

  3. Look at what is in effect.

    Open Standards. Every rule shows its severity, its stage, and whether it is agent guidance or a deterministic check. Open one to see why it exists, examples, and how it is rolled out. Nothing here can block anyone yet: rules at Teach only reach agent instructions.

    More: Rollout stages, Adopting rules.

  4. Write one rule of your own.

    Choose Describe a rule and say it the way you’d tell a new teammate. For example: “We never call Stripe directly; everything goes through src/payments/gateway.ts.” AI writes the full standard, with examples and a check it has tested against them. Review it, then Save as draft. Or write one yourself with New standard.

    More: Describe a rule, Write a standard.

  5. Invite your team.

    Settings → Members → Invite. Choose a role for each person. Standard owners write and accept rules; developers read the rulebook and connect the CLI.

    More: Members and roles.

  6. Connect a repository.

    In a terminal, inside your repository:

    Terminal window
    npx @groundrule/cli login
    npx @groundrule/cli init --org acme-payments
    npx @groundrule/cli sync

    login opens your browser to approve the CLI. init writes .groundrule/config.yaml, which links this repository to your workspace. sync writes your rules into AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and .cursor/rules/, keeping anything you already wrote there. Commit those files.

    More: CLI quickstart.

  7. Scan it, and bring in what it already says.

    Terminal window
    npx @groundrule/cli scan --upload

    The scan detects your stack, runs every catalog rule against the repository without enforcing anything, and finds the rules the repository already has: instructions in agent files, lint settings, CODEOWNERS. It uploads results and short snippets, not your source.

    More: Scan repositories.

  8. Review the inbox.

    Open Inbox. What the scan found waits here as proposals: instructions to turn into standards, tool settings to adopt, owners to assign. Accept, edit or reject each one. You can also Import a document, such as a handbook, a PDF, or a Notion page, and AI finds the rules in it.

    More: The review inbox, Import documents.

  9. Check changes in CI.

    Add two steps to your CI. In GitHub Actions:

    - run: npx @groundrule/cli sync --check
    - run: npx @groundrule/cli check --base origin/${{ github.base_ref }}

    The first fails if the agent files are out of date. The second checks only what the pull request changed, and fails on blockers at Enforce. CI uses a token from Settings → API tokens as GROUNDRULE_TOKEN.

    More: Run Groundrule in CI.

  10. Move rules forward with evidence.

    Run scan --upload regularly, for example nightly in CI. When a rule has been clean everywhere for long enough, the inbox suggests moving it to the next stage under Ready to move forward. Promote it, or hide the suggestion for a while.

    More: Evidence, Promotions.