readme.rst

navigation-title:	Usage

Using the server

Four steps from nothing to the first answered question. Each is short here and names the page that has the detail.

.. steps::

    .. step:: Install it

        One standalone checkout serves every project on the machine. ``install``
        writes into the directory it runs in. So the last two lines run from the
        root of the project the agent works in, never from the checkout:

        .. code-block:: bash

            git clone https://github.com/TYPO3/dev-companion.git typo3-dev-companion
            composer install --working-dir=typo3-dev-companion
            cd /path/to/your/project
            /absolute/path/to/typo3-dev-companion/bin/typo3-dev-companion install

        Without ``--agent`` that writes the entry into ``.mcp.json`` and the
        skills into ``.agents/skills``, the two places a client finds without
        configuration for it. Name a client that reads elsewhere,
        ``--agent=cursor``, ``--agent=copilot``, and :ref:`the client table
        <installing-clients>` says which file each one gets. A project can
        require the package instead of a pointer at a checkout; that and every
        other case is :doc:`installing`.

    .. step:: Finish in the client

        A file on disk registers nothing. The client has to read it, and most
        ask you to approve a project server before they start it. Claude Code
        reads ``.mcp.json`` when a session starts, so restart the session and
        approve at the prompt. The install prints what your client needs under
        the line that reports the entry.
        :ref:`installing-finishing-in-the-client` has the same list with each
        client's own documentation behind it.

    .. step:: Ask it one question

        In the client you work in:

            Which icon identifier is the right one for a delete button in the
            TYPO3 backend?

        Then look at what the agent did: a call to ``typo3_icon_lookup`` means
        the server answers. An answer with no call behind it means the client
        never started it, and :doc:`checking-it-answers` is how to find out why.

    .. step:: Describe your task

        There is nothing more to drive. Describe the work in whatever language
        you speak to your agent in, and the server tells the agent at connect
        where to start. :doc:`working-with-it` is what that changes on your side
        of the conversation. :doc:`task-skills/ <task-skills/index>` lists the
        workflows the install published beside the server, with their complete
        instructions.

Afterwards

• typo3-dev-companion update refreshes the skills and the entry after this package moved. A server that finds stale copies puts them back on its own, see :ref:`installing-keeping-it-current`.
• Which tools the server offers, and the four environment variables the entry may carry: :ref:`installing-what-the-entry-may-carry`.
• Taking it out again — :ref:`installing-removing-it`.

It is a local subprocess, started by the client over stdio, and it reads. It writes nothing into the TYPO3 installation it points at. The one exception is the feedback channel, which writes into this server's own checkout, and only a standalone checkout offers it.

.. toctree::
    :hidden:

    installing
    task-skills/index
    checking-it-answers
    working-with-it