Installation

Before you start

You need two things:

• Node.js 18+
• Claude Code

That is all SlashForge itself requires. There are two optional integrations, and neither has to be installed first — this trips people up, so to be explicit:

	Required?	When you deal with it
superpowers	No, but strongly recommended	The first command you run offers to install it
Graphify	No, fully optional	/slashforge:setup offers it mid-run, on supported languages only

You do not need to prepare anything. Install SlashForge, run a command, and it will walk you through the rest.

If you say yes to Graphify

Graphify is a Python CLI, so accepting the offer needs one more thing on your machine:

• Python 3.10+
• uv — or pipx, or plain pip. Any of the three works; uv is what /slashforge:setup suggests first.

Nothing else. Graphify’s own dependencies — networkx, numpy, rapidfuzz, and the tree-sitter grammar for each supported language — are resolved by the installer. There is no requirements file to manage and no virtualenv to create yourself; uv tool install and pipx install both put graphifyy in its own isolated environment.

python3 --version                 # need 3.10 or newer
uv --version                      # or: pipx --version

If uv is missing, install it with curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh (macOS/Linux), or use pipx/pip instead — no reason to add a tool you don’t already want.

One caveat worth knowing up front: graphify watch ., the recommended way to keep the graph fresh, needs the watch extra, which the plain install does not include. If you expect to use it, install with uv tool install "graphifyy[watch]" instead.

Say no to the Graphify offer and none of this applies: SlashForge itself never touches Python. See Graphify for what the integration buys you.

Quick start

npx slashforge

That installs the guide files and the three commands into ~/.claude/. Open Claude Code in any repo and type / — you should see /slashforge:setup, /slashforge:code, and /slashforge:investigate.

Your first run

Start to finish, for a repo that has never used SlashForge:

1. Install SlashForge.

npx slashforge

2. Install superpowers. Optional, but do it now — it is one line, and the workflow leans on it at almost every phase:

/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official

If you skip it, your first command will stop, explain what you lose, and offer to install it then. Nothing breaks either way — it just runs in a degraded mode it will tell you about. See Superpowers preflight.

3. Set up the repo. Open Claude Code in your project and run:

/slashforge:setup

It explores the codebase, asks you questions in batches, and generates CLAUDE.md plus .claude/ rules, agents, skills, and hooks. This is also where Graphify is offered, if your languages are supported — say no and it skips silently, and you can accept later by re-running.

4. Do some work.

/slashforge:code

It asks what you want to build, then walks the ten phases, stopping at four points for your approval. For a small change, add -quick.

That’s the whole loop. /slashforge:setup once per repo, /slashforge:code per change, and /slashforge:investigate when you need to understand a bug before touching it.

Global install

npm install -g slashforge
slashforge

Re-running on a machine that already has it prompts to update to the latest version.

Project install

slashforge --project

Vendors the guides and commands into the repo’s ./.claude/ with repo-relative paths. Commit it and your teammates get the commands with no global install.

Flags and subcommands

Command	What it does
slashforge	Install or update
slashforge --project	Install into ./.claude/ of the current repo
slashforge --dry-run	Print planned writes without touching the filesystem
slashforge --yes	Non-interactive; auto-confirm the update prompt
slashforge status	Show installed version, guide count, available update
slashforge uninstall	Remove guides and commands (add --project)
slashforge --help	Full usage

Non-interactive use

--yes is also enabled by SLASHFORGE_YES=1, or automatically when stdin is not a TTY. Safe for CI, devcontainers, or anywhere the install must not block on a prompt.

SLASHFORGE_YES=1 npx slashforge

Verifying the install

slashforge status

Reports the installed version, the guide files present, the commands registered, and whether superpowers was detected.

Updating

Re-run the install command to pull the latest guide files:

npx slashforge
# → "slashforge is already installed. Update to v3.0.x? (y/n)"

Worth doing when either optional integration changes upstream — if superpowers renames a skill, or Graphify changes its install commands, the guide files need to catch up.

Uninstalling

slashforge uninstall              # global
slashforge uninstall --project    # repo-local

Uninstall removes only the files SlashForge installed. If you have added your own commands under ~/.claude/commands/forge/, they are left alone and the directory is kept.