AI Kit Engine

Generic TUI installer engine for AI-assisted development kits. Create your own branded AI kit by editing one config file.

What is this?

This is the engine, not a kit. It provides the interactive installer, theme system, profile presets, stack detection, and file management -- but ships no branding or opinionated content.

Content repos consume this engine as a git submodule. One company is already using this in production. They provide a kit.toml for branding, plus their own rules, skills, profiles, and registry. The engine reads kit.toml at runtime and adapts everything -- menus, file paths, watermarks, themes -- to your brand.

Getting Started

Option A (recommended): npx scaffolder

npx ai-kit-engine init

Asks a few questions, generates everything.

Option B: curl bootstrap

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MagnusPladsen/ai-kit-engine/main/bootstrap.sh | bash

Same scaffolding, no Node.js needed.

Option C: Template repo

Clone ai-kit-engine-template and edit to taste.

All three methods produce the same result: a content repo with kit.toml, wrapper install.sh, and the engine as a git submodule.

Then run:

bash install.sh

Features

• Interactive TUI -- color themes, animated menus, checkbox selection, fuzzy search, keyboard navigation
• 10 built-in themes + custom themes -- switch live with t, define your own in kit.toml
• Profile presets -- one-click configurations that pre-select rules, skills, and plugins
• Stack detection -- auto-detects React, .NET, Python, etc. from project files
• Team config sharing -- export selections to a config file teammates can import
• Fuzzy search -- press / in any menu to filter items
• Token budget estimates -- color-coded token counts for every rule and skill
• File safety -- backups before overwrites, watermark tracking, clean uninstall with restore
• Multi-tool support -- one install configures Claude, Gemini, Codex, OpenCode, Crush, Windsurf, Continue.dev, Copilot, and Cursor
• Global + project install modes -- project mode for repos, global mode for symlinked central config
• Manage mode -- re-run to add, remove, or update individual items
• Auto-update prompt -- detects new engine versions on startup, lets you update now or skip
• Dry run mode -- preview changes before writing anything

kit.toml quick reference

[branding]
name = "My AI Kit"           # Full display name
short_name = "MY-KIT"        # Uppercase short name
tagline = "..."              # One-liner below the logo
watermark = "my-ai-kit"      # File markers and backup suffixes
config_dir = ".my-kit"       # Installed config directory name
ascii_art_file = "branding/ascii.txt"  # Optional logo

[settings]
default_theme = "Tokyo Night" # Initial theme

[defaults]                    # Toggle engine defaults (all true by default)
rules = true
skills = true
registry = true
profiles = true

[[custom_themes]]             # Define custom color themes
name = "My Brand"
lime = [200, 214, 75]         # Primary accent
teal = [62, 205, 198]         # Secondary accent
gold = [220, 200, 60]         # Mid-tone accent

[stacks.react]                # Technology stack definitions
name = "React / Next.js"
detect = ["package.json"]     # Auto-detection file patterns
rules_dir = "react"           # Subdirectory under rules/

[wrapper_files]               # AI tool instruction files
items = ["CLAUDE.md", "COPILOT.md", "CURSOR.md", "CODEX.md", "GEMINI.md"]

[global_symlinks.claude]      # Symlink targets for global installs
name = "Claude Code"
cli = "claude"
paths = [
    { src = "CLAUDE.md", dst = "~/.claude/CLAUDE.md" },
    { src = ".claude/rules/", dst = "~/.claude/rules/" },
]

See docs/REFERENCE.md for the full field reference and defaults system details, or browse docs/examples/ for complete ready-to-copy kit setups (minimal, startup, enterprise, single-stack).

Content repo structure

your-ai-kit/
├── kit.toml                # Branding, stacks, themes, settings
├── install.sh              # Thin wrapper (~10 lines)
├── branding/
│   └── ascii.txt           # ASCII art logo (optional)
├── rules/
│   ├── shared/             # Rules installed for all stacks
│   ├── react/              # Stack-specific rules
│   └── dotnet/
├── skills/
│   ├── commit/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   └── create-pr/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── profiles/
│   ├── minimal.toml
│   └── full-stack.toml
├── registry.toml           # Plugin & MCP server metadata
├── CLAUDE.md               # AI tool instruction files
├── COPILOT.md
├── CURSOR.md
├── CODEX.md
├── GEMINI.md
├── AGENT.md
└── engine/                 # AI Kit Engine (git submodule)

Adding content

Want to add...	How
A rule	Create rules/{category}/{name}.md
A skill	Create skills/{name}/SKILL.md
A plugin	Add [plugins.name] to registry.toml
An MCP server	Add [mcps.name] to registry.toml
A profile	Create profiles/{name}.toml
A custom theme	Add [[custom_themes]] to kit.toml
A stack	Add [stacks.key] to kit.toml

Profile format

name = "My Profile"
description = "What this profile includes"
stacks = ["react", "integrations"]

[rules]
items = ["commit-conventions", "security", "typescript"]

[skills]
items = ["commit", "create-pr", "review"]

[plugins]
items = ["superpowers", "coderabbit"]

Registry format

[plugins.my-plugin]
tokens = 500
heavy = true              # Optional: shown in yellow
stack = "react"           # Optional: only shown for this stack

[mcps.my-server]
url = "https://example.com/mcp"

[mcps.context7]
url = "npx:-y:@upstash/context7-mcp"   # npx with colon-separated args

CLI flags

Flag	Description
--help, -h	Show usage information
--check	Verify installed files are in sync with kit source
--update	Re-install, overwriting with latest
--uninstall	Remove kit files and restore backups
--list	Show installed rules, skills, and plugins
--dry-run	Preview without writing files

bash install.sh --check
bash install.sh --dry-run
bash install.sh --uninstall

Contributing

Ground rules

• Never hardcode brand names -- all branding comes from kit.toml
• Never break backward compatibility -- existing kit.toml files must keep working
• Every commit bumps VERSION -- see .claude/rules/versioning.md
• New kit.toml fields must have defaults -- the engine must work with a minimal config
• Default content must be universally applicable -- no brand-specific references

Testing changes

cd ../my-ai-kit
bash install.sh --dry-run
bash install.sh
bash install.sh --check
bash install.sh --uninstall

License

MIT