Getting Started

This guide walks you through installing SNIPER and running your first project lifecycle.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Node.js 18+ installed
• Claude Code installed and authenticated
• pnpm (recommended) or npm as your package manager

Installation

Install the SNIPER CLI globally:

npm install -g @sniper.ai/cli

Or with pnpm:

pnpm add -g @sniper.ai/cli

Verify the installation:

sniper --version

Initialize a Project

Navigate to your project directory (or create a new one) and run:

sniper init

The CLI will scaffold the .sniper/ directory with all framework files:

.sniper/
  config.yaml           # Project configuration
  personas/             # Agent persona layers
    process/            # Role definitions (analyst, architect, developer...)
    technical/          # Technical expertise (backend, frontend, security...)
    cognitive/          # Thinking styles (systems-thinker, devils-advocate...)
    domain/             # Domain-specific context
  teams/                # Team composition YAML files
  workflows/            # Phase workflow definitions
  templates/            # Artifact output templates
  checklists/           # Review gate checklists
  spawn-prompts/        # Composed agent prompts
  domain-packs/         # Industry-specific knowledge packs

Configure Your Project

Open Claude Code in your project directory and run the init command:

/sniper-init

The command walks you through an interactive configuration:

1. Project name -- identifies your project in artifacts
2. Project type -- saas, api, mobile, cli, library, or monorepo
3. One-line description -- what the project does
4. Tech stack -- language, frontend, backend, database, cache, infrastructure, test runner, package manager
5. Domain pack -- optional industry-specific context (e.g., sales-dialer)
6. Review gates -- strict, flexible, or auto for each phase transition

The defaults work well for most TypeScript/React/Node projects:

stack:
  language: typescript
  frontend: react
  backend: node-express
  database: postgresql
  cache: redis
  infrastructure: aws
  test_runner: vitest
  package_manager: pnpm

Override any values that do not match your project by providing key=value pairs when prompted (e.g., language=python backend=fastapi database=mongodb frontend=null).

Run Your First Discovery

With SNIPER initialized, start the discovery phase:

/sniper-discover

This spawns the discover team -- three agents working in parallel:

Agent	Process	Cognitive	Output
analyst	analyst	systems-thinker	docs/brief.md
risk-researcher	analyst	devils-advocate	docs/risks.md
user-researcher	analyst	user-empathetic	docs/personas.md

The team lead (you) enters delegate mode. The agents research independently and produce their artifacts. When all three complete, a review gate evaluates the output against the discover-review checklist.

Since the discovery gate defaults to FLEXIBLE, it auto-advances if there are no critical failures. You can review the artifacts asynchronously.

Continue the Lifecycle

After discovery completes, the lifecycle continues through:

/sniper-plan      # Phase 2: PRD, architecture, UX spec, security
/sniper-solve     # Phase 3: Break PRD into epics and stories
/sniper-sprint    # Phase 4: Implement selected stories

Each command is run explicitly -- SNIPER never auto-advances to the next phase. You control the pace.

TIP

Run /sniper-status at any time to see where you are in the lifecycle, which artifacts exist, and what to do next.

For Existing Projects

If you have an existing codebase and want to use SNIPER for incremental features, start with ingestion instead of discovery:

/sniper-ingest

This spawns a team that reverse-engineers your codebase into SNIPER artifacts:

• docs/brief.md -- what the project does
• docs/architecture.md -- system architecture as-built
• docs/conventions.md -- coding patterns and conventions

After ingestion, use /sniper-feature to add incremental features with scoped planning and implementation.

Project Structure After Init

After running /sniper-init, your project will have:

your-project/
  .sniper/              # Framework configuration and content
    config.yaml         # Project settings, review gates, ownership rules
    personas/           # Agent persona layer files
    teams/              # Team YAML definitions
    ...
  docs/                 # Artifacts produced by phases
    epics/              # Epic files (from /sniper-solve)
    stories/            # Story files (from /sniper-solve)
  CLAUDE.md             # Claude Code instructions referencing SNIPER

Next Steps

• Core Concepts -- understand the framework's building blocks
• Configuration -- customize every aspect of your setup
• Full Lifecycle -- detailed walkthrough of all four phases