Installation

Ziggurat is distributed as source, not as a published npm package. Its package.json keeps "private": true, so do not depend on the ziggurat package name.

Requirements

Node.js 22 or newer for the core package. The documentation site requires Node.js 22.12.0 or newer. Continuous integration is configured for Node.js 22 and 24 on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Git, to clone the repository.

Build from source

Clone this repository, then from the checkout root:

npm ci
npm run build

npm run build compiles TypeScript to dist/. The CLI entry point is dist/src/cli/main.js.

Verify the build

npm run check
node dist/src/cli/main.js --help

npm run check cleans, rebuilds, and runs the full compiled test suite. See the CLI reference for command purposes. In the help text below, ‘immutable’ means no-overwrite creation with detectable mutation, not filesystem immutability.

Ziggurat: Models propose. Humans decide what persists.

Usage: ziggurat <command> [options]

Commands:
  init     Initialize a vault with an empty human trust policy
  ingest   Capture immutable Bronze evidence
  refine   Stage an evidence-backed Silver proposal
  review   Render staged Silver proposals for human review
  build    Rebuild isolated indexes; unsigned content stays out of Gold
  query    Query authorized Gold
  mcp      Start the read-only Gold MCP server
  check    Audit clean-room and key-material policy
  eval     Run conformance checks

Command name

Documentation uses the shorter ziggurat binary name. From a source checkout, either substitute node dist/src/cli/main.js, or create a development-only global link:

npm link

npm link is a local convenience for a source checkout. It does not publish anything.

Create a vault in Your first vault.

Build the documentation site

The site has its own dependencies and lockfile; root npm ci does not install them.

cd site
npm ci
npm run check