Core commands

The Core group bootstraps a repo and keeps it healthy.

`forge init`

Scaffold this repo’s config — emits every tool from one shared source.

forge init

Emits AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .gemini/settings.json, .aider.conf.yml, and the rest (plus MCP server config for Roo Code and VS Code), and the .gitattributes union-merge rule the ledger needs. forge init also merges Forge’s hooks and permissions into the global ~/.claude/settings.json, so it announces the merge before writing. The merge is idempotent, marker-guarded, and never clobbers user entries.

Init flags

Flag	What it does
`--profile <name>`	Pick the policy profile for this repo. Accepts `minimal` or `standard` (default). An invalid value aborts before any scaffold, `.forge/` write, or merge.
`--no-settings`	Skip the global `~/.claude/settings.json` merge entirely — only the per-repo config is written.
`--remove-settings`	Reverse a past settings merge. Forge-shaped hooks, permissions, statusline, and the `_forge` marker are removed; a timestamped backup is written first, and your own entries are preserved. Also invoked by `install.sh --uninstall`.
`--settings-only`	Only merge the global settings — don’t touch the repo. Used by `install.sh` to wire hooks and permissions.

If the settings merge is refused or errors, forge init fails with exit 1 and writes the reason to stderr rather than reporting success.

Policy profiles

--profile selects the ruleset that forge sync compiles into each tool’s native config. Only two profiles are supported:

standard (default) — the full pack: shared memory rules, impact analysis, and the complete guardrail hook set.
minimal — a leaner ruleset for small repos or contributor forks.

The legacy names web-app, backend-service, library, and regulated are deprecated aliases of standard. They still work: forge init warns once, stores standard, and existing configs holding a legacy name sync as standard. New repos should use standard directly. Any other value is invalid and aborts before Forge touches the repo.

forge init --profile minimal            # leaner ruleset
forge init --no-settings                # per-repo only, skip the global merge
forge init --remove-settings            # reverse a past global merge

`forge sync`

Recompile the canonical source into each tool’s native config files.

forge sync

Idempotent — it only rewrites what changed. Run it after editing source/rules.json or a per-repo .forge/rules.json.

`forge doctor`

Health-check installed tools, guards, MCP auth, and config drift.

forge doctor

Pass/fail across tools, guards, MCP wiring, config drift, and update status. Every path is fail-open. A gateway models row prints the resolved tier → model mapping when a custom gateway is configured.

`forge catalog`

Start Here — list every tool, crew, and guard with a one-line why.

forge catalog

`forge docs`

Docs ↔ code drift.

forge docs check     # registry reconcile — commands, env vars, MCP tools, CHANGELOG
forge docs sync      # diff-driven stale-docs sweep

docs check fails CI when commands, env vars, MCP tools, or the CHANGELOG drift from the code. docs sync sweeps the diff and reports UPDATED / STALE / VERIFIED-UNAFFECTED.

`forge update`

Self-update across all three install modes.

forge update              # apply the update (git checkout or npm/copy install)
forge update --check      # report whether a newer version is available
forge update --to <version>   # pin or downgrade to a specific version (v0.19+)

Every path is fail-open — offline, no upstream, or detached HEAD returns “unknown”, never an error. FORGE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 silences the doctor notice.

​forge init

​Init flags

​Policy profiles

​forge sync

​forge doctor

​forge catalog

​forge docs

​forge update

`forge init`

Init flags

Policy profiles

`forge sync`

`forge doctor`

`forge catalog`

`forge docs`

`forge update`