Keel setup — plugin install → keel init → keel compile

User-invoked. It writes files the human will commit; nothing here pushes, merges or applies the GitHub ruleset. The gates are theirs to turn on.

Where the CLI is

The plugin ships it. In a session with the plugin installed:

node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/plugin/bin/keel.mjs" <command>

In the submodule layout it is node .claude/keel/plugin/bin/keel.mjs. The human can alias either as keel; for the plugin, the marketplace clone is ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/keel/plugin/bin/keel.mjs. Node 20+.

Steps (done when the line is true)

1. Init. Run keel init from the project root. Done when: it prints the policy, the two CLAUDE.md blocks and the scaffolds it wrote or kept. Existing files are never overwritten; a second run only refreshes the two managed blocks.
2. Policy. Open keel.policy.json with the human: approver.github (their handle), agentIdentity.github (the GitHub App's bot login, e.g. name-keel[bot]), surfaces (the project's real danger paths: money, tenancy, auth, migrations, secrets, and the files that enforce its own laws), environments, backPressure + checks (what CI must pass, in order). Done when: no placeholder (YOUR-, your-keel-app) remains and every backPressure name has a command. Then run keel init again so the standing authorization names the approver.
3. Scaffolds. Fill CONTEXT.md (what/brand/phase), DESIGN.md (tokens), GLOSSARY.md (terms), CODING_STANDARDS.md (keep the rules that fit), LAWS.md (the project's Iron Laws), LEARNINGS.md (Trap → Rule → Why), docs/INDEX.md (where each doc lives) and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md (load-bearing pieces, module map). If the project already keeps one of these under another name (e.g. docs/DOMAIN.md), make the scaffold a one-line pointer to it — one fact, one home. Done when: each file is either filled or a pointer.
4. Compile. keel compile writes the lock, deny rules, CODEOWNERS, the keel.yml workflow and .keel/github-ruleset.json. Read its notes aloud (risky allow rules, missing GitHub remote). Done when: it exits 0.
5. Hand over. Tell the human, in this order: commit everything in one PR marked Rigor: HEAVY — governance and merge it themselves; create the GitHub App (docs/v3/GUIDE.md §0) if agentIdentity doesn't exist yet; apply the ruleset (gh api -X POST repos/<owner>/<repo>/rulesets --input .keel/github-ruleset.json, repo admin, once; private repos need a plan that enforces rulesets); then keel doctor. Done when: every required doctor line reads ENFORCED or OK, or the human knows exactly which UNPROVEN line waits on them.

Existing projects

Follow the same steps. Then remove any older delegation in CLAUDE.md ("may commit and merge on its own", "applies migrations autonomously") — the standing authorization block replaces it — and delete project copies of route, laws, review, spec skills if the project carried the card-set Keel: the plugin's /keel:* skills and the CLAUDE.md block are the one rule set now. Projects compiled before the ledger and secrets-write gates existed need one keel compile; until then the hooks run in strict fallback.