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Install the CLI

brew install magic-ingredients/tap/tiny-brain
tiny-brain is free and bring-your-own-key — it wraps the AI tool and account you already have. Claude Code is first-class; Codex, Gemini CLI, and Cursor are supported.

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Initialise your repo

From the root of the repository you want tiny-brain to manage: 
tiny-brain init
init bootstraps the repo end to end:
  1. Preflight — runs the system doctor first; critical problems abort, warnings abort unless you pass --ignore-system-doctor.
  2. Repo analysis — for code repos, detects your tech stack, package manager, and test patterns into .tiny-brain/analysis.json. Prose repos (--type prose) skip this.
  3. Git hooks — installs the commit-msg and post-commit hooks that enforce the TDD pipeline.
  4. Agent context — writes the project context your AI tool reads.
init is idempotent: re-running it on an initialised repo reports “Already initialised” and writes nothing. Useful flags: 
tiny-brain init --type prose        # documentation/writing repo, skip analysis
tiny-brain init --path ./my-repo    # initialise another directory
tiny-brain init --yes               # CI-safe, skip the interactive prompt

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Connect your MCP client

If you installed via Homebrew or the script, register the MCP server with your platform: 
tiny-brain mcp install          # detects your platform
tiny-brain mcp status           # verify
Under the hood, MCP-aware clients boot the server with command: npx, args: [tiny-brain, mcp]. mcp install knows Claude Code, Claude Desktop (via the MCPB bundle), Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, and ChatGPT Connectors; Cursor and any other MCP-aware editor can be pointed at the same npx server config manually.

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Uninstall

tiny-brain is markdown and config in your repo plus ~/.tiny-brain/ — remove the plugin (tiny-brain mcp uninstall) and delete those, and your repo is exactly as it was. Next: the quickstart takes you from an initialised repo to your first live loop.