Installation

Install the GitKB CLI

GitKB is distributed as a single binary. Install it with your preferred method:

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install gitkb/tap/gitkb

Install script (macOS / Linux)

curl -fsSL https://get.gitkb.com/install.sh | bash

Verify installation

git-kb --version

Initialize a knowledge base

Navigate to your project root and initialize:

cd your-project
git-kb init

This creates a .kb/ directory in your project root with the GitKB database and configuration.

What’s in .kb/?

.kb/
├── config.toml      # KB configuration
├── gitkb.db         # SQLite database (document metadata, search index)
├── workspace/       # Ephemeral editing surface for checked-out documents
└── cache/           # Daemon socket, runtime files

The SQLite database caches document metadata and powers full-text search. Document content lives as Markdown files managed by GitKB’s own commit and sync protocol.

Optional: colorized Markdown output

GitKB can pipe git-kb show output through glow for syntax-highlighted, styled Markdown in your terminal.

Install glow via Homebrew or see glow’s install docs for other methods:

brew install glow

Then add to .kb/config.toml:

[pager]
markdown = "glow -p -w 0"

See Configuration for details.

Start using code intelligence immediately

Code intelligence works on any Git repo right after installation — no git-kb init required:

cd your-project
git-kb code index
git-kb code callers your-function

See Code Intelligence for the full command reference, or continue to the Quick Start for the full setup.

Next steps

Introduction Quick Start