Installation

Install the CLI

npm install -g truecourse

This puts the truecourse command on your PATH; every example in these docs uses it. Prefer not to install globally? Run any command one-off with npx truecourse <command> instead.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Needed for	Notes
Node.js ≥ 20	everything
Claude Code CLI	LLM-powered work in the default transport	Optional. The default `cli` transport spawns `claude -p` per call; deterministic rules, API mode, and the `agent` transport don’t need it.
.NET 8 SDK	analyzing C# only	C#‘s semantic rules run in a Roslyn host you build once: `dotnet build -c Release tools/csharp-roslyn-host` (or point `TRUECOURSE_ROSLYN_HOST` at a prebuilt binary).

Analyzing a repo that contains C# without the Roslyn host fails fast with a build-the-host message. There is deliberately no tree-sitter-only fallback, since a silent half-analysis is worse than a clear error.

First run: the LLM choice

The very first truecourse command you run, whichever it is, asks once and saves the answer:

◆ How should TrueCourse run its LLM calls?
│ ● Claude Code (recommended)   uses your existing Claude Code login, per-stage model tiers, no API key needed
│ ○ API — bring your own key    Anthropic, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, GitHub Copilot

Claude Code saves the choice and continues into your command. API walks provider → model → API key → optional fallback model and base URL, then makes one live call to prove the configuration works; a configuration that fails its probe is never saved. In a non-interactive shell (CI, scripts, git hooks) nothing is asked and nothing is written: Claude Code stays the default. Change the selection any time with truecourse config llm setup.

What gets created

No setup step and no database: the first truecourse analyze (or spec scan) creates .truecourse/ in your repo and stores everything there as plain JSON files. A few of those files are committable and travel with the repo through git; the rest are local-only and added to .truecourse/.gitignore automatically. See Storage for the full layout.

Getting Started

Code Analysis

Spec → Guard

Dashboard

Configuration

Reference

Install the CLI

Prerequisites

First run: the LLM choice

What gets created

Next steps

Quickstart

LLM transport

​Install the CLI

​Prerequisites

​First run: the LLM choice

​What gets created

​Next steps

Quickstart

LLM transport

Install the CLI

Prerequisites

First run: the LLM choice

What gets created

Next steps