Skills
Role-based skills the agent invokes during a task — review changes against ADRs, author new ADRs, capture lessons learned, onboard a project, and look up the CLI reference.
How Archgate delivers ADR governance into your AI editor. Compare the six editor integrations and learn how plugins are distributed through plugins.archgate.dev.
The Archgate CLI enforces your Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) as executable rules. The editor plugins carry that governance one step earlier — into the AI agent itself. Instead of relying on prompt instructions that drift over time, the plugins teach your agent to read the applicable ADRs before it writes code, validate its changes after, and capture new patterns for the team.
The plugins are a layer on top of the CLI, not a replacement for it. The authoritative command, rule, and ADR reference lives at cli.archgate.dev. Every plugin ultimately drives the same archgate commands — archgate review-context, archgate check, archgate adr show — locally on your machine. No ADR data leaves your computer.
What the plugins add
Section titled “What the plugins add”Across editors, the plugins package the governance workflow into reusable units:
Agents
Pre-configured sub-agents — a developer that runs the full read-validate-capture loop, and a read-only planner that designs ADR-compliant approaches without touching code.
Rules / context
Always-on governance context so the agent knows to consult ADRs before coding and check compliance after — delivered as a Cursor rule, agent memory, or session context depending on the editor.
Diagnostics
ADR violations surfaced where you work — inline in the editor (VS Code) or through archgate check in the terminal and CI for the rest.
The six editor integrations
Section titled “The six editor integrations”Archgate ships governance to six AI editing surfaces. They share the same skills and agents, but each adapts to the host editor’s extension model — so the exact capabilities and install method differ.
| Editor | Skills | Agents | Diagnostics | Session context | Install |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 5 skills | developer · planner | via CLI / CI | ✓ | /plugin marketplace add |
| Cursor | 5 skills | developer · planner | via CLI / CI | always-apply rule | tar.gz · plugin install |
| VS Code | 4 chat skills | — | native, on save | — | .vsix extension |
| Copilot CLI | 5 skills | developer | via CLI / CI | ✓ | git clone (shallow) |
| Claude Desktop | 5 skills | — | — | — | .zip skill bundles |
| OpenCode | as agents | 7 agents | via CLI / CI | ✓ | tar.gz |
The two most widely used integrations are documented in depth:
Claude Code The most complete integration: 5 skills, developer and planner agents, full governance loop. Start here.
Cursor Skills and agents plus an always-apply governance rule for Cursor's AI.
Distribution model
Section titled “Distribution model”The plugins are distributed through a custom git-compatible service at plugins.archgate.dev, not a public package registry. During the closed beta this gives Archgate full control over access — per-user tokens, instant revocation, and download analytics — without GitHub licensing costs.
How it works
Section titled “How it works”The service is a single Bun binary deployed on Railway. It implements the git smart HTTP protocol, so editors that install plugins via git clone (Claude Code, Copilot CLI) can fetch directly from it. The plugin files are embedded in the binary at build time and served from a pre-computed virtual git repository — every request returns the same pre-built packfile, so there is no per-request computation. For editors that expect packaged artifacts, the same service also serves a VS Code .vsix extension, Cursor and OpenCode tar.gz archives, and Claude Desktop skill .zip bundles.
Access is gated by per-user tokens stored in a Turso/libSQL database. The token travels in the clone URL — https://<token>@plugins.archgate.dev/archgate.git — and the editor stores that URL locally, so background auto-updates keep working across sessions. Every git request validates the token before serving any bytes.
Getting access
Section titled “Getting access”You do not assemble the URL by hand. The Archgate CLI handles the entire flow:
archgate login— authenticates with your GitHub account via the Device Flow and stores plugin credentials in your OS credential manager.archgate init(orarchgate plugin install) — detects your editor and installs the matching plugin using your token automatically.
Updates
Section titled “Updates”The virtual git repo has a single main branch with one commit per plugin version. When the service is redeployed with new plugin files, it produces a new content-addressable commit SHA; the editor detects the change on its next marketplace update and pulls the latest version. The version field in each plugin’s manifest (currently 0.7.0) is bumped per release so editors reliably detect updates.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps” Set up Claude Code Full setup, configuration, and how skills and agents drive the loop.
Set up Cursor Install the plugin and configure the always-apply governance rule.
CLI reference Authoritative command, rule, and ADR documentation.