Getting Started

Get up and running with Ixchel in minutes.

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75+ — For building the tools
• Git 2.0+ — For version control
• HelixDB — Embedded via workspace dependencies (no separate install)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kevinmichaelchen/ixchel.git
cd ixchel

# Build all tools
cargo build --release

# Install ixchel to your PATH
cargo install --path apps/ix-cli

Quick Start with ixchel

Ixchel is the unified CLI for issues, decisions, reports, and more.

Initialize in Your Project

cd your-project
ixchel init

This creates:

• .ixchel/ — Canonical Ixchel directory (git-tracked except rebuildable cache)
  • .ixchel/issues/ — Where issue files are stored
  • .ixchel/config.toml — Embeddings + storage configuration
• .gitignore entries for .ixchel/data/ and .ixchel/models/

Create Your First Issue

ixchel create issue "Add user authentication" --status open

Search Issues

ixchel search "authentication"

Manage Relationships

ixchel link iss-abc123 blocks iss-xyz789
ixchel graph iss-abc123
ixchel context iss-abc123

What's Next?

• Learn about Design Principles behind Ixchel
• Explore the Architecture
• Deep dive into ixchel features