Installation

ClaudeKit is installed via the ClaudeKit CLI (ck). The CLI downloads the kit you select from AgentKit releases and copies skills, agents, and configuration into your Claude Code environment.

Requirements

  • Node.js v18 or higher
  • npm v10 or higher (or bun, pnpm, yarn)
  • Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated (claude)
  • GitHub Personal Access Token with repo scope (for private repository access)

Note: A Google Gemini API key is optional. It is only needed if you use the ai-multimodal skill for vision/document analysis.

Step 1: Install the CLI

# npm (recommended)
npm install -g claudekit-cli

# bun
bun add -g claudekit-cli

# pnpm
pnpm add -g claudekit-cli

# Verify
ck --version

Step 2: Choose Installation Scope

ModeCommandSkills installed toUse when
Global ⭐ck init -g~/.claude/skills/Available in every project
Localck init./.claude/skills/Only this project

Global is recommended for most users. Run once, use ClaudeKit in any project.

Step 3: Install Your Kit

Engineer Kit (development workflows)

# Global — available in all projects
ck init -g --kit engineer

# Local — current project only
cd /path/to/your/project
ck init --kit engineer

What gets installed:

  • 80+ skills (engineer kit includes core skills; 83 total installed)
  • Agents (planner, tester, code-reviewer, debugger)
  • Configuration files (.ck.json, .ckignore, settings.json)

Marketing Kit (content & campaigns)

ck init -g --kit marketing

What gets installed:

  • 60+ skills (social, email, brand, seo, video, campaign, and more)
  • Marketing agents (copywriter, designer, campaign-manager)

Both Kits

Run ck init -g once per kit. They install to the same ~/.claude/ directory without conflict:

ck init -g --kit engineer
ck init -g --kit marketing

Step 4: Authenticate

The CLI needs a GitHub Personal Access Token to download kit releases.

Automatic (recommended): If you have the GitHub CLI installed and authenticated, the CLI picks up your token automatically:

gh auth login  # if not already done
ck init -g --kit engineer  # token detected automatically

Manual: Create a token at GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic). Select the repo scope. Then:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here
ck init -g --kit engineer

The CLI also checks GH_TOKEN and your OS keychain — you only need to enter a token once.

Step 5: Start Using ClaudeKit

Launch Claude Code in any project:

claude

Then invoke skills with /ck: prefix:

/ck:cook add user authentication
/ck:fix --auto
/ck:brainstorm should I use REST or GraphQL?
/ck:test

Initialize project documentation (optional but recommended):

/ck:docs init

This scans your project and generates docs/codebase-summary.md, docs/code-standards.md, and docs/system-architecture.md.

Verify Installation

# Check skills are installed
ls ~/.claude/skills/    # Global
ls .claude/skills/      # Local

# Check Claude Code sees the config
claude --version

Update ClaudeKit

Re-run ck init to pull the latest release:

# Update engineer kit globally
ck init -g --kit engineer

# Update to a specific version
ck init -g --kit engineer --release v3.1.0

# Update CLI itself
ck update

ck init is safe to re-run — it merges updates and preserves your customizations.

Advanced: Manual Installation

This method is not recommended for most users. Use ck init above.

If you cannot use the CLI (no internet on target machine, air-gapped environment):

  1. Download the kit release archive from the GitHub Releases page
  2. Extract to a local directory
  3. Run ck init --kit-path /path/to/extracted-kit

Or install from a local directory:

ck init -g --kit engineer --kit-path ./my-downloaded-kit

Troubleshooting

Permission Errors (npm global install)

# Option A: Use npx (no global install needed)
npx claudekit-cli init -g --kit engineer

# Option B: Configure npm prefix
mkdir ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
npm install -g claudekit-cli

GitHub Authentication Failed

# Install GitHub CLI
brew install gh        # macOS
# or: https://cli.github.com

# Authenticate
gh auth login

# Verify
gh auth status

Claude Code Not Found

Install Claude Code CLI from claude.ai/code, then restart your terminal and verify with claude --version.

Skills Not Activating

After global install, verify skills are present:

ls ~/.claude/skills/cook
# Should show: SKILL.md (and possibly references/ scripts/)

If empty, re-run ck init -g --kit engineer.

Next Steps