How to install Procoder without the plugin

A how-to guide. Goal: run Procoder with an agent other than Claude Code — Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode, Cline, or anything that reads AGENTS.md.

Using Claude Code? Do the tutorial instead. The plugin carries the binary and wires the hooks for you, and none of this page applies.

1. Put the binary on PATH

Each release publishes a binary per platform. Download the one for your machine, check it against the published checksums, and put it on PATH. No runtime, no npm.

V=3.1.0   # the release you want
P=darwin-arm64   # or darwin-amd64, linux-amd64, linux-arm64, windows-amd64
B=https://github.com/azrtydxb/procoder/releases/download/v$V

curl -sSfL -o procoder "$B/procoder-$P"
curl -sSfL -o SHA256SUMS "$B/SHA256SUMS"

# verify before running it — the whole point of the manifest.
# sha256sum on most Linux, shasum on macOS: use whichever you have.
sum() { command -v sha256sum >/dev/null && sha256sum "$@" || shasum -a 256 "$@"; }
grep " procoder-$P\$" SHA256SUMS | sed "s/procoder-$P/procoder/" | sum -c -

chmod +x procoder && ./procoder version

The binaries are no longer committed to the repository: cloning gets you an empty dist/, because CI builds them at the tag and publishes them there instead (ADR 0004). If you use the plugin, none of this applies — its launcher does exactly the above for you, once, and caches the result.

Make the PATH line permanent in your shell profile, or copy the binary somewhere already on PATH.

2. Write the agent contract

In the repository you want governed, first establish AGENTS.md with the shared project contract. Then choose your host, for example Kilo:

procoder agents --host kilo

This derives the selected per-host rule file from your existing AGENTS.md and prints an additive .procoder/hosts.json declaration with the path for each file. It writes nothing; review the content and write the files. Repeat --host for additional hosts; use --host agents for a native AGENTS.md reader. --all is a deliberate distribution choice, not a default.

Most hosts need only AGENTS.md. Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Kilo Code, Roo, Kiro, Antigravity, Qoder, Copilot and Codex each take one extra file at their own path — see Every agent for the full table.

3. Close the tool gaps

procoder init --host kilo

Prints one install command per missing formatter, linter, scanner, and index builder that this repository needs. Add --yes to run them and re-check that every tool answers.

A missing tool is never silently skipped: files it would have checked are reported unchecked, and unchecked fails the gate.

4. Wire the commit gate

procoder hook install-git

Prints the pre-commit hook that runs procoder check before a commit lands. Without it, nothing stops a commit — the gate is a command your agent runs, not a thing that intercepts you.

Common pitfalls

Do not skip procoder agents. Without the contract file the agent has the binary and no instructions about when to run it, which is most of the value gone.
Do not edit a generated per-host rule file directly. AGENTS.md is the master; regenerate the copies with procoder agents, and the gate blocks on drift between them.
Do not assume the plugin and the manual install differ in behaviour. It is the same binary and the same rules — only the wiring differs.