Codebuff

Get started with Codebuff

1. Install Codebuff

Enter the following in your terminal, which could be inside your favorite IDE (VSCode, Cursor, etc.).

bash
npm install -g codebuff

2. Navigate to your project directory

bash
cd /path/to/your-repo

3. Run Codebuff

bash
codebuff

Codebuff has multiple modes: lite for quick tasks, max for complex work, and plan for planning without file changes. You can invoke them in the slash menu with /mode:.

4. Initialize Your Project (Optional)

Run the /init command inside Codebuff to set up project-specific files:

text
/init

What /init Creates

| File/Directory | Purpose | |---------------|----------| | knowledge.md | A starter file for documenting your project's setup commands, architecture, and coding conventions. Codebuff reads this to understand your project better. | | .agents/types/ | TypeScript type definitions for creating custom agents. |

When to Use /init

  • New projects — Run /init once to create a knowledge.md file and get Codebuff familiar with your project.
  • Building custom agents — The .agents/types/ directory provides TypeScript types for full IntelliSense when creating agents.
  • Team onboarding — Commit knowledge.md to your repo so Codebuff works consistently for all team members.

Note: /init is safe to run multiple times. It skips files that already exist and only creates missing ones.

Troubleshooting

If you run into issues during installation:

  1. Permission issues — The best fix is to install Node.js using nvm or fnm, which avoids permission problems entirely. Then run npm install -g codebuff again.

  2. Still Having Problems?

    • On Mac/Linux, you can fix permissions with: sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(npm config get prefix)/{lib/node_modules,bin,share}
    • On Windows, run your terminal as administrator

Troubleshooting | Discord

FAQ