Archgate

**Enforce Architecture Decision Records as executable rules — for both humans and AI agents.** [](LICENSE.md) [](https://github.com/archgate/cli/actions/workflows/release.yml) [](https://cli.archgate.dev) [](https://www.bestpractices.dev/projects/12659)

---

Archgate turns your Architecture Decision Records into a governance layer that runs in CI, enforces rules in pre-commit hooks, and feeds live context to AI coding agents — so architectural decisions don't stay in documents, they stay in the code.

Write an ADR once. Enforce it everywhere.

How it works

Archgate has two layers:

1. ADRs as documents — markdown files with YAML frontmatter stored in .archgate/adrs/. Each ADR records a decision: what was decided, why, and what to do and not do.
2. ADRs as rules — each ADR can have a companion .rules.ts file that exports automated checks. Archgate runs these checks against your codebase and reports violations.

.archgate/
└── adrs/
    ├── ARCH-001-command-structure.md          # human-readable decision
    ├── ARCH-001-command-structure.rules.ts    # machine-executable checks
    ├── ARCH-002-error-handling.md
    └── ARCH-002-error-handling.rules.ts

When a rule is violated, archgate check reports the file, line, and which ADR was broken. Exit code 1 means violations — wire it into CI and it blocks merges automatically.

The CLI is free and open source. Writing ADRs, enforcing rules, running checks in CI, and wiring up pre-commit hooks all work without an account or subscription.

Installation

Install via standalone script, npm, pip, dotnet, Go, gem, Maven, or proto. See the installation guide for all options and platform support.

Quick start

# 1. Initialize governance in your project
cd my-project
archgate init

# 2. Edit the generated ADR to document a real decision
# .archgate/adrs/ARCH-001-*.md

# 3. Add a companion .rules.ts to enforce it automatically
# .archgate/adrs/ARCH-001-*.rules.ts

# 4. Run checks
archgate check

Writing rules

Each ADR can have a companion .rules.ts file that exports automated checks. See the writing rules guide for examples and the full rule API reference.

Supercharge with AI plugins

Make your AI agent architecture-aware. With the optional editor plugins, your AI coding agent reads ADRs before writing code, validates changes against your rules, and captures new architectural patterns back into ADRs — automatically.

Plugins are available for Claude Code and Cursor.

archgate login             # one-time GitHub auth
archgate init              # installs the plugin automatically

Get started with plugins — the CLI works fully without them, but plugins close the loop between decisions and code.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at cli.archgate.dev — including guides for writing ADRs, writing rules, CI integration, editor plugin setup, and the complete CLI reference.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and workflow.

License

Apache-2.0