⬡ vikitGet kits →

Installation

Vikit is installed via the vikit-cli (vk). The CLI downloads the packages you select and copies skills, agents, and configuration into your Claude Code environment.

Requirements

  • Node.js v18 or higher
  • npm v10+ (or bun, pnpm, yarn)
  • Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated (claude)
  • GitHub Personal Access Token with repo scope (for private repository access)
  • Google Gemini API key — optional, only for the ai-multimodal skill (vision/document analysis)

Step 1 — Install the CLI

Install vikit-cli globally with your package manager, then verify the binary is on your PATH:

# npm (recommended) npm install -g vikit-cli # bun / pnpm / yarn bun add -g vikit-cli # Verify vk --version

Step 2 — Choose a scope

Global installs into ~/.claude/skills/ so Vikit is available in every project; local installs into ./.claude/skills/ for the current project only. Global is recommended for most users — run once, use Vikit anywhere.

  • Global — vk init -g → ~/.claude/skills/ (every project)
  • Local — vk init → ./.claude/skills/ (this project only)

Step 3 — Install your packages

Install the full suite or individual packages. Each vk init pulls the latest release and merges cleanly — re-running it is safe and preserves your customizations.

  • What gets installed — 80+ skills across 10 packages (vikit-engineer, vikit-ai, vikit-backend, …)
  • Agents — planner, tester, code-reviewer, debugger
  • Config — .vk.json, .vkignore, settings.json
# Full suite, global vk init -g # Engineer package only vk init -g --kit engineer # Local (current project only) cd /path/to/your/project vk init --kit engineer

Step 4 — Authenticate

The CLI needs a GitHub token to download package releases. With the GitHub CLI authenticated it is detected automatically; GH_TOKEN and your OS keychain are also checked — you only enter a token once. To set it manually:

# Automatic — authenticate the GitHub CLI once gh auth login vk init -g --kit engineer # token detected # Manual export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here vk init -g --kit engineer

Step 5 — Start using Vikit

Launch Claude Code in any project and invoke skills with the /vk: prefix:

claude /vk:eng:plan add user authentication /vk:eng:fix --auto /vk:eng:brainstorm should I use REST or GraphQL?

Update & verify

Re-run vk init to pull the latest release, pin a specific version, or update the CLI itself:

# Pull the latest package release vk init -g --kit engineer # Pin a specific version vk init -g --kit engineer --release v3.1.0 # Update the CLI vk update # Verify skills are present ls ~/.claude/skills/

Next steps