Get started with Baxter
Baxter is a plain-text harness — a folder you drop into any project. No accounts, no subscriptions, no special tooling, and no git command required — download it, unzip it, and you're in.
What you'll have at the end of this guide
- ✓Baxter installed and reading your codebase
- ✓Your first artefact generated and saved to git
- ✓A clear understanding of the core skills (templated artefacts) and the power skills (slash commands)
Most important step — where does my code go?
→ coderepo/
Copy or symlink your project's source code into coderepo/. A full codebase, part of one, or a starter scaffold all work — Baxter analyses whatever is there. Nothing built yet? Write a BRD first; it's the one artefact that doesn't need code.
# Copy your project in cp -r /path/to/your/project coderepo/ # Or symlink it (keeps one copy on disk) ln -s /path/to/your/project coderepo/src
Gitignored and never committed — your code stays private to your machine. The same applies to artefacts/: everything generated stays local, never pushed to GitHub.
Download the harness
No git command needed.
Unzip it, then use it standalone or copy the folder into an existing project repo. The harness is self-contained — it does not affect your project's code or CI.
Prefer git? git clone https://github.com/glovarix/agentic-ba.git
Add your codebase
Copy or symlink your project's source code into coderepo/. This is what Baxter reads to verify every artefact — required for everything except an initial BRD.
cp -r /path/to/your/project coderepo/
Your code never leaves your machine
Everything inside coderepo/ is gitignored — it is never committed or pushed. If your codebase is large, a symlink works just as well as a copy.
Baxter reads coderepo/ to verify every artefact against your real codebase — checking technical feasibility, logic consistency, data model implications, role and permission logic, and flagging missing edge cases.
Open in your AI agent
Open the folder in your AI agent. Baxter's instructions are already in the right file for each tool — the agent loads them automatically with no setup.
Recommended for beginners
VS Code + the Claude Code extension
If you are new to this, install VS Code and add the Claude Code extension from the marketplace. You get a familiar editor with Baxter running in a side panel — no terminal required. Open the agentic-ba folder, open the Claude Code panel, and start pasting requests.
It works just as well in the Claude Code CLI, Cursor, or VS Code with GitHub Copilot — each picks up its own instruction file:
| Tool | Instruction file loaded automatically |
|---|---|
| VS Code + Claude Code extension (recommended) | CLAUDE.md |
| Claude Code (CLI) | CLAUDE.md |
| Cursor | .cursor/rules/baxter.mdc |
| GitHub Copilot | .github/copilot-instructions.md |
| Any agent following the agents.md standard | AGENTS.md |
The instruction files are identical (both Claude Code editions read CLAUDE.md). A pre-commit hook keeps them in sync — edit CLAUDE.md and the others update automatically on your next commit. Run this once after cloning to activate it:
git config core.hooksPath .githooks
Paste a request — any raw text
"The login page returns a 500 error when the user submits without a password"
"Write up the BRD for recurring invoices"
"I need test cases for the billing module — mandatory fields and role access"
"Add a print to PDF button to the customer profile page"
Baxter classifies the request, tells you which template it will use, and asks for a one-word confirmation before generating anything. You can reply with the artefact code (e.g. BR), a number, or just proceed.
That's it — you're running. The detail lives in Docs.
- → What to say for each artefact, plus the full folder layout and every template in detail
- → Configuring Baxter — every preferences.json setting, and which integrations are optional
- → Power skills — all thirteen slash commands, what each does, what to provide
- → Tips for getting the best results
Ready to work with Baxter?
Open source and free. Drop the harness into any project, open it in Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot, and paste your first raw request.