Installation

ContextCake is clone-and-run. The engine is dependency-free: there is no npm install step, no install scripts execute, and nothing is fetched beyond the clone itself. What you clone is what runs.

Prerequisites

• git
• Node.js ≥ 18

Clone

git clone https://github.com/siracusa5/context-cake.git
cd context-cake

That’s the whole installation.

Verify

Resolve a concept from the bundled three-layer demo, where the layers deliberately disagree:

node resolver.mjs --manifest playground/manifest.json --concept decisions/primary-db

The JSON output shows the effective merge: contributors lists each layer with its last-updated date, every section carries the sourceLayer that won it, and sections where layers disagree carry a conflicts array with the dissenting layers’ content and dates — surfaced, not hidden.

To run the full test suite (requires bash):

npm test

What you just installed

Piece	Run with
Cascade resolver (CLI)	node resolver.mjs --manifest <manifest> --concept <id>
MCP server for agents	node mcp-server.mjs --manifest <manifest>
Interactive playground	npm run playground → http://127.0.0.1:8790
Capture write path	node ingest.mjs / node write.mjs

Why there’s no npm package

Deliberate, for now. Package registries have repeatedly shipped compromised AI/agent tooling through hijacked maintainer accounts and postinstall payloads. A knowledge engine your agents read from should have a supply chain you can audit in an afternoon — a git clone at a commit you can review is exactly that. If a package is published later, it will be announced in the changelog with provenance attestation.

Next

• Your first cascade — build your own layers
• Connect an agent (MCP) — wire it into Claude
• The trust boundary — read this before pointing a manifest at sources you didn’t write