Getting Started

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Claude Code — Anthropic's CLI for Claude
• Bun — Required for VCP plugin hooks specifically (TypeScript files run directly via bun). Dev Buddy does not require Bun — as of v0.3.2, Dev Buddy no longer uses hooks, relying instead on the executor-based architecture.

Or use Docker: Skip manual installation entirely — see Docker Setup below.

Choose Your Plugin

VCP provides three plugins. Install any combination depending on your needs:

Plugin	Install Command	Best For
VCP	/plugin install vcp@vcp	Standards enforcement — scanning, security gate, quality rules
Dev Buddy	/plugin install vcp@dev-buddy	Multi-AI pipeline orchestration — feature development and bug fixing
MCP Doc	/plugin install vcp@mcp-doc	Documentation manifest generator for git-doc-mcp

Installing VCP

From Marketplace

# 1. Add the VCP marketplace
/plugin marketplace add Z-M-Huang/vcp

# 2. Install the plugin
/plugin install vcp@vcp

From Source

Clone the repository and add the plugin source directly:

git clone https://github.com/Z-M-Huang/vcp.git
# Then add plugins/vcp as a plugin source in your Claude Code configuration

Initialize Your Project

Run the initialization skill in your project directory:

/vcp-init

This will:

1. Create global config (first time only) — Creates ~/.vcp/config.json with the standards URL and plugin path. Asks if you want to use the default VCP public standards or a custom repository URL.
2. Scan your project — Detect frameworks, languages, and tools from dependency manifests (package.json, requirements.txt, pyproject.toml, etc.)
3. Determine scopes — Identify which VCP scopes apply:
   • web-frontend — Client-side web code
   • web-backend — Server-side web code
   • database — Database interactions
   • mobile — Mobile platforms (React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin)
   • desktop — Desktop apps (Electron, Tauri)
   • cli — Command-line tools
   • devops — Containers, CI/CD, IaC, Kubernetes
4. Ask for confirmation — Present the proposed configuration and let you adjust scopes, frameworks, compliance, exclude patterns, and severity threshold. Shows the standards URL from global config.
5. Discover plugin path — Locate the VCP plugin installation directory
6. Write .vcp/config.json — Save the configuration to your project root

Example ~/.vcp/config.json

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Z-M-Huang/vcp/main/schemas/vcp-global.schema.json",
  "standards_url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Z-M-Huang/vcp/main/standards/manifest.json",
  "pluginRoot": "/home/user/.claude/plugins/vcp",
  "debug": false,
  "defaults": {}
}

Example .vcp/config.json

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Z-M-Huang/vcp/main/schemas/vcp.schema.json",
  "version": "1.0",
  "scopes": {
    "web-frontend": true,
    "web-backend": true,
    "database": false
  },
  "compliance": [],
  "frameworks": ["react", "express", "postgresql"],
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules/**",
    "dist/**",
    "build/**"
  ],
  "severity": "medium",
  "ignore": [],
  "pluginRoot": "/home/user/.claude/plugins/vcp"
}

Note: When initializing a second project, /vcp-init detects the existing global config and reuses the standards URL and plugin path — only asking about project-specific settings.

See Configuration for full schema documentation.

What Activates Automatically

Once the plugin is installed:

Feature	When	What It Does
Standards injection	Session start	Injects VCP rule summaries into the AI's context so it writes better code from the start
Security gate	Every Write/Edit/Bash	Blocks hardcoded secrets, SQL injection, eval injection, and other dangerous patterns in real time
Stop reminder	When Claude finishes a task	Reminds you to run VCP checks before committing

Run Your First Scan

Full Audit

Scan a directory against all applicable standards (security, architecture, quality):

/vcp-audit src/

Dependency Check

Verify lockfile hygiene, version ranges, and suspicious packages:

/vcp-dependency-check

Pre-Commit Review

Review all staged and changed files before committing:

/vcp-pre-commit-review

This produces a PASS or BLOCK verdict.

Re-Inject Standards Context

If you're in a long session and want to refresh the AI's awareness of VCP rules (e.g., after context compaction):

/vcp-context

Updating an Existing Config

If you already have a .vcp/config.json but it's missing the pluginRoot field (needed for the shared TypeScript modules), run /vcp-init again. It will detect the missing field and patch it in without changing your other settings. Running /vcp-init also creates the global config (~/.vcp/config.json) if missing.

Installing Dev Buddy

From Marketplace

# 1. Add the VCP marketplace (if not already added)
/plugin marketplace add Z-M-Huang/vcp

# 2. Install the Dev Buddy plugin
/plugin install vcp@dev-buddy

Your First Pipeline Run

Start a feature development pipeline:

/dev-buddy-requirements Add a login page with email and password

Or start a bug-fix pipeline:

/dev-buddy-rca Users get a 500 error when submitting the contact form

Dev Buddy auto-creates its config files (~/.vcp/dev-buddy.json and ~/.vcp/ai-presets.json) on first run with sensible defaults.

Team-based requirements: To enable 5 specialist agents exploring your codebase in parallel during requirements gathering, set CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 in your environment. Without this, requirements gathering falls back to a single-agent mode.

See Dev Buddy Quick Start for a detailed walkthrough.

Docker Setup

VCP provides a ready-to-use Docker image (zhironghuang/vcp:latest) with Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Bun, and all dependencies pre-installed.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose

Quick Start

# Clone the repo (for docker-compose.yml and .env.example)
git clone https://github.com/Z-M-Huang/vcp.git
cd vcp/docker

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set HOST_PROJECTS_DIR to your code directory, add API keys

# Start the container
docker compose up -d

# Attach
docker exec -it vcp-docker bash

Volume Mounts

Host Variable	Container Path	Purpose
HOST_PROJECTS_DIR	/app	Your project code
HOST_SSH_DIR	/home/devuser/.ssh	SSH keys for git (read-only)
HOST_CLAUDE_DATA_DIR	/home/devuser/.claude	Claude Code plugins, settings, memories
HOST_TMP_DIR	/home/devuser/tmp	Temporary files

The Claude data directory persists installed plugins and settings across container restarts. Once inside the container, install VCP plugins the same way as a native installation:

/plugin marketplace add Z-M-Huang/vcp
/plugin install vcp@vcp
/vcp-init

See docker/README.md for full documentation including platform-specific configuration, tmux usage, and building from source.

Next Steps

VCP

• Configuration — Customize scopes, compliance, severity, and ignore rules
• Skills Reference — Detailed documentation for all 10 skills
• Three‐Layer Enforcement Model — Understand how the layers work together

Dev Buddy

• Dev Buddy Quick Start — Installation and first pipeline
• Dev Buddy Configuration — Configure pipeline stages and providers
• AI Provider Presets — Set up Claude, API, and CLI providers