Developer quickstart

Governed context for your agents, from a terminal in a minute.

ContextNest is plain Markdown with versions, approvals and a record of every read. The CLI, engine and MCP server are open source. Your agents read it over MCP, and the same vault can move to a self-hosted or hosted server with no migration.
ContextNest on GitHubThe CLI on npm
Quickstart

Create, add, approve, query.

Node 18 or later. Prefer not to install globally? Every ctx command also runs as npx @promptowl/contextnest-cli.
  1. 1

    Create a vault

    One command creates a vault in the current folder: plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter, versioned and hash-chained. Add --starter developer for folders for architecture decisions, standards and runbooks.

    Terminal
    $ npm install -g @promptowl/contextnest-cli
    Terminal
    $ ctx init --starter developer
  2. 2

    Add a document

    Documents live under nodes/. Each one gets a title, tags and a body.

    Terminal
    $ ctx add nodes/architecture/auth --title "Auth design" --tags "#architecture" --body "We use OIDC with short-lived tokens."
  3. 3

    Approve it

    Review is on by default, so a new document waits as pending_review and search won't return it yet. Approve it, and it's published and searchable. (To skip review in a personal vault: ctx config set review off.)

    Terminal
    $ ctx review list
    Terminal
    $ ctx review approve nodes/architecture/auth
  4. 4

    Query it

    Full-text search, or a selector that returns the same documents for the same question every time.

    Terminal
    $ ctx search "auth"
    Terminal
    $ ctx query "#architecture"
Connect your agents

Connect Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor over MCP.

The MCP server reads the vault at CONTEXTNEST_VAULT_PATH and gives your agent tools to search, read and query it.

Claude Code

Terminal
$ claude mcp add contextnest -e CONTEXTNEST_VAULT_PATH=/absolute/path/to/your/vault -- npx -y @promptowl/contextnest-mcp-server

Or install the ContextNest plugin inside Claude Code, which adds capture, curator and retriever agents: /plugin marketplace add promptowl/contextnest, then /plugin install contextnest.

Claude Desktop and Cursor

Add this to claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (Cursor), then restart the app.

MCP config
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "contextnest": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@promptowl/contextnest-mcp-server"],
      "env": { "CONTEXTNEST_VAULT_PATH": "/absolute/path/to/your/vault" }
    }
  }
}

Move to a shared server

When your team needs the same vault, push it to a self-hosted or hosted ContextNest server. Same files, no migration.

Terminal
$ ctx push --server https://your-server --nest <nest-id> --key <api-key>
Licenses

What's open, and what isn't.

The engine, CLI and MCP server are AGPL-3.0: if you modify them and offer them as a network service, you share your changes. Using them as-is to run your own agents doesn't change your own code's license.
ComponentPackage or repositoryLicense
CLI@promptowl/contextnest-cliAGPL-3.0
EnginePromptOwl/ContextNestAGPL-3.0
MCP server@promptowl/contextnest-mcp-serverAGPL-3.0
Claude Code pluginpromptowl/contextnestAGPL-3.0 (in the ContextNest repository)
Open specPromptOwl/context-nest-specApache-2.0
Starter vaultsPromptOwl/context-nest-startersApache-2.0
Desktop appContextNest DesktopCommercial license, free to use with a free account
Community server@promptowl/contextnest-communityCommercial license, free for up to 10 users with a free license key

Building agents, not just reading context?

PromptOwl builds and runs agents on the same governed knowledge, with approvals before they act.
For agentsAll downloads