Getting started

Install rota, set up a project and run your first capture, work, ship cycle in about five minutes.

📦 Install

brew install l4ci/tap/rota   # or: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/l4ci/rota/main/install.sh | sh
rota skills install

The second command writes the skills into the Claude Code and Codex skill directories. Options, scopes, upgrading and removal are on the install page.

⚙ Set up the project

Run rota setup once at the project root. It scaffolds .rota/ and asks the main config questions: where the backlog lives, isolation, merge strategy, review depth, test commands and a few more. Press Enter to keep the suggested value. Where the repo gives a signal (your go.mod or package.json, CI files, the origin host, the harnesses on your PATH), setup suggests that value and says where it read it.

rota setup --list prints the questions with each suggestion and its evidence.
rota setup --yes takes the suggested values and asks nothing. --set key=value answers one question. Both suit scripts and CI.
rota config set <key> <value> changes a setting later. Don’t hand-edit the JSON files.

Every question and its choices are described in config options; configuration explains the keys by concept. A second machine that builds issues beside main uses the support role: see Support role.

Commit .rota/ and the files setup wrote (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .claude/agents/, .gitignore): /rota-work starts from a clean tree.

🔁 Your first cycle

One item, with you driving each step.

Capture it. Describe the work in plain words:
```
/rota-capture the list command shows every row when I ask for zero
```
Capture writes the item to the backlog (.rota/BACKLOG.md by default) and stops. It never starts work. See capturing work.
Build it.
```
/rota-work B03
```
Use the ID capture printed. /rota-work checks the tree is clean, cuts a branch and builds the item in small commits, one per task. For a behavior change the proof gate wants a failing test run first, then a passing one. See running work.
Ship it.
```
/rota-ship
```
Ship runs /rota-review first. On a pass it merges into the base branch (work.mergeStrategy: direct, the default) or pushes and prints the PR URL (pr). With the issue backend it always opens a PR that closes the issue. See review and ship.

For an item too big to one-shot, run /rota-plan between capture and work. Skills lists every /rota-* skill; how skills chain shows which follow which.

➡ Next

Your first round: several issues in parallel, an orchestrator, workers and the merge gate.
Examples: the skill chains with sample transcripts, from one small bug to a whole project. The walkthroughs show what a greenfield or brownfield project holds on disk.
How it works: the roles and how the skills connect.