Installation

Global Install

Install Rulebound globally to use the rulebound command anywhere:

# npm
npm install -g rulebound

# pnpm
pnpm add -g rulebound

# yarn
yarn global add rulebound

Project-Local Install

For team consistency, install as a dev dependency:

# npm
npm install -D rulebound

# pnpm
pnpm add -D rulebound

Then run with npx:

npx rulebound init

Verify Installation

rulebound --version
rulebound --help

Initialize Your Project

rulebound init

This creates:

Path	Description
`.rulebound/config.json`	Project configuration (name, stack, scope, team)
`.rulebound/rules/`	Directory for your rule files
`.rulebound/rules/global/example-rule.md`	A starter rule to get you going
`.git/hooks/pre-commit`	Pre-commit hook (auto-installed if .git exists)

Options

# Include example rules from the rulebound examples directory
rulebound init --examples

# Skip pre-commit hook installation
rulebound init --no-hook

Project Configuration

Edit .rulebound/config.json to describe your project:

{
  "project": {
    "name": "my-api",
    "stack": ["typescript", "express", "postgresql"],
    "scope": ["backend", "api"],
    "team": "platform"
  },
  "extends": [],
  "rulesDir": ".rulebound/rules"
}

Requirements

Node.js 18+ (uses native ESM, fs.watch recursive)
Git (for diff validation, hooks, and rule history)
pnpm / npm / yarn (any package manager works)

Optional Dependencies

For LLM-powered deep validation (--llm flag):

pnpm add ai @ai-sdk/anthropic
# or
pnpm add ai @ai-sdk/openai

Set your API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
# or
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...