Your first project

A project is a committed recipe (kapi.yaml) plus a store that remembers your work — approvals, content memory, terminology. Set it up once and every surface works the same project: the desktop app, your AI assistant, and the CLI. A new project starts source-only (checks, brand, terminology); add languages when you want them.

Desktop

Install Kapi Desktop and open it. On first open, the Connect your AI card offers whatever it detects — a Claude Code sign-in (uses your Claude subscription, no key), a local Ollama model, or a stored API key — one click; or skip and use the demo engine.

1. Create the project. On the home screen, click New Project, name it, and pick a source language. Or click KapiMart under sample projects to explore a realistic, pre-seeded project first — content collections, five target languages, and a stocked content memory.
2. Add content. In the Project view, add a pattern that matches your source files (for example docs/**/*.md). Kapi lists the matched files and the detected format, grouped into a collection.
3. Bring it up to date. The project view shows per-locale coverage and each scope's ship-gate standing. Bring up to date runs the project's default flow until every gated scope is shippable or parked for a person — the desktop form of kapi up.
4. Review what parked. Anything a machine can't decide lands in the Review queue — open it from a ship-gate cell. See Review & approve.

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Walkthrough videoPending recording

Creating a project from the New Project dialog, opening the KapiMart sample, adding a content collection, and reading the coverage and ship-gate panel.

View scene script ↗

Agent (Claude)

With the Kapi skill or MCP server connected, ask for the project:

Set kapi up for this project.

Claude detects the stack, runs kapi init (with --preset <stack> for a known i18n layout), adds the content patterns it finds, drafts a brand profile from your existing copy, and proposes terms for you to approve. The result is committed: a recipe, a brand profile, and a terms source. From there your prompts stay short — "check this is on brand" needs no flags, because the recipe carries them.

CLI

Install the CLI, then from your content directory:

kapi init                      # scaffold kapi.yaml + .kapi/ state (source-only)
kapi add "docs/**/*.md"        # declare the content; format auto-detected
kapi stats                     # blocks, words, characters for what's tracked
kapi check                     # check the project's content; exit 3 on gate fail

For a known stack, kapi init --preset react-i18next (or nextjs, vue-i18n, …) pre-fills the content mapping — kapi init --list-presets lists them. The recipe is plain YAML:

kapi.yaml

version: v1
name: my-app
defaults:
  source_language: en
content:
  - path: "docs/**/*.md"

Commit the recipe; .kapi/ is regenerable and belongs in .gitignore. Every kapi command run anywhere in the tree finds the project by walking up, like git. See the project file reference for the full schema. When you're ready for AI-backed steps, kapi models setup detects what you already have — a Claude Code sign-in, Ollama, or an API key — and confirms it as the default (Use with Claude).

Next

• Add languages — target locales, kapi up, review, gates.
• Projects — the concept: ad-hoc vs project, bindings, the store.
• Set up your brand guide in 10 minutes — the source-quality half.