Installation

Requirements

• VS Code 1.106 or later for the extension
• Node.js 22.12.0 or later on PATH. The extension starts its MCP server with node, and the CLI is a Node.js program
• At least one supported harness installed and authenticated

Install the extension

Install ctrlyoke from the VS Code Marketplace or clone the repository and run the extension locally during development.

After install, open the panel:

Command Palette → ctrlyoke: Open ctrlyoke Panel

The panel opens in the secondary side bar (far right) by default. If you prefer a wider, horizontal layout, drag the ctrlyoke tab down to the bottom panel. The ctrlyoke: Show Getting Started command reopens the built-in walkthrough at any time.

Install a harness

ctrlyoke does not bundle AI assistants. It orchestrates harnesses that you already have installed.

Harness	What you need
copilot-cli	GitHub Copilot CLI installed and signed in
claude-cli	Claude Code CLI installed and signed in
codex-cli	Codex CLI installed and signed in
opencode-cli	OpenCode CLI configured with a provider
qwen-cli	Qwen Code CLI installed and configured
antigravity-cli	Antigravity CLI (agy) installed and signed in

Start with copilot-cli or claude-cli unless you already know you need another harness.

Initialize a workspace

ctrlyoke keeps workspace-level files such as settings, templates, scripts, prompts, attachments, and logs in a .ctrlyoke folder.

The first time you open the panel in a workspace that has no .ctrlyoke/ folder, the dashboard asks Initialize ctrlyoke here? Click Initialize ctrlyoke to continue. You can also run the command directly at any time:

Command Palette → ctrlyoke: Initialize Workspace

That creates .ctrlyoke/ and a self-ignoring .gitignore inside it — nothing else, so initializing does not leave your Git worktree dirty. Subdirectories such as prompts/, scripts/, templates/, agents/, and skills/ are created on demand the first time you add something to them.

The command-line tool

The extension includes the ctrlyoke command-line tool. In VS Code's integrated terminals it is already on PATH, so ctrlyoke run, ctrlyoke validate and the other commands work there with no setup. Nothing is added to your system PATH.

To use the CLI anywhere else (another terminal, CI, a server or a container), install it from npm:

npm install -g ctrlyoke

If you also use the extension, install the extension's exact version, so both copies read and write shared state the same way:

npm install -g ctrlyoke@<extension version>

ctrlyoke: Install CLI for Use Outside VS Code opens a terminal with that command typed in for you to review and run. For a one-off run, npx ctrlyoke@<version> … works without installing.

See CLI overview for how the two copies coexist, and CLI in CI for pipelines.