Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop supports Archgate through standalone skill bundles. Unlike the editor plugins that ship an agent plus skills together, Claude Desktop is configured by installing individual Archgate skills as .zip packages. Each bundle teaches Claude one part of the governance workflow — authoring ADRs, reviewing changes, onboarding a project, capturing lessons, and loading the CLI reference.

Authoritative CLI reference

This page covers installing the skill bundles in Claude Desktop. For the exact archgate command syntax the skills invoke (archgate check, archgate review-context, archgate adr ...), see the CLI reference at cli.archgate.dev.

Requirements

• Claude Desktop with skill support enabled.
• Archgate CLI — install via the CLI install guide. The skills shell out to the archgate CLI to read ADRs and run checks, so it must be available in the environment Claude Desktop can execute commands in.
• A project with a .archgate/ directory — created by archgate init. The skills operate on the ADRs and rules in that directory.

The skill bundles

Each bundle is a .zip containing a Skill.md (the skill definition) and its LICENSE. Five bundles are distributed:

archgate-reviewer

Validates code changes against all applicable project ADRs, using domain-focused sub-agents. Invoke after making changes, before committing.

archgate-adr-author

Creates and edits ADRs following your project’s established structure and conventions.

archgate-onboard

One-time setup: runs archgate init, explores the codebase, interviews you, and creates the initial set of ADRs.

archgate-lessons-learned

Captures learnings from a session and codifies them into new ADRs or project memory — the final step in the workflow.

archgate-cli-reference

Internal reference that loads the complete Archgate CLI command and rules-authoring guide on demand. Supports the other skills rather than being invoked directly.

These are the same roles documented in Skills, packaged for Claude Desktop’s skill format.

Installation

The bundles are distributed as archgate-<role>.zip files. Install each one through Claude Desktop’s skills interface.

1. Obtain the skill bundles. Download the archgate-*.zip files from the Archgate plugins distribution (closed beta — archgate login to request access).

2. Open Claude Desktop’s skills settings and choose to add a skill from a file.

3. Install each .zip bundle you want. At minimum, install archgate-reviewer (validate changes) and archgate-cli-reference (so the other skills can load command syntax). Add archgate-adr-author, archgate-onboard, and archgate-lessons-learned for the full workflow.

4. Verify the CLI is reachable by confirming archgate --version works in the environment Claude Desktop runs commands in. The skills depend on it.

Skills call the CLI

The skill bundles do not contain the Archgate engine — they instruct Claude to run archgate commands and read your ADRs. If the CLI is not installed or not on PATH, the skills cannot gather context or run checks.

How the skills work together

Each skill is self-contained but they form a workflow when used in sequence:

1. Onboard once — archgate-onboard sets up .archgate/ and your initial ADRs for a new project.
2. Author decisions — archgate-adr-author creates and refines ADRs as your architecture evolves.
3. Review changes — after writing code, archgate-reviewer runs archgate review-context and archgate check, then validates each affected domain against its ADRs. ADR violations are hard blockers.
4. Capture learnings — archgate-lessons-learned reviews the session and proposes new ADRs or updates when a pattern emerges.

Throughout, archgate-cli-reference loads the exact CLI command syntax and rules API on demand, since those details are newer than most model training cutoffs.

Next steps

All editor plugins Compare the six supported editors and what each one provides.

Skills Detailed reference for each governance skill.

CLI reference Authoritative command and rules documentation.