Series document · Episode 29 min

Episode 2 - Create a CLI workspace

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This episode installs the released CLI and creates a local workspace that can validate its own content. At the end, you will have ordinary files and a working index, not a public website.

Before you startUse a macOS or Linux shell with git, network access, and permission to write to ~/.local/bin.
The installer creates equivalent commands at silan, svk, and silan-viking. This series uses silan.
1. Installcurl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Qingbolan/Silan-Context-System/main/engine/install.sh | sh
silan --versionIf silan is not found, open a new terminal so your updated PATH is loaded. To avoid piping a remote script into a shell, inspect engine/install.sh in the repository and run it locally.
2. Create the workspacemkdir my-research-site
cd my-research-site
silan initThe command creates:
content/              authored Markdown/TOML and media
content/SCHEMA.md     local content contract
silan-viking.toml     workspace configurationIt also initializes Git for the content source and creates seed records. The SQLite database is derived from these files and can be rebuilt.
3. Validate the starting statesilan content lint
silan index sync
silan guidecontent lint reports source and relation problems.
index sync rebuilds the local database from content/.
guide prints the next action based on the current workspace.
A seed workspace may report warnings about missing information. Continue only when the summary reports 0 fatal and index sync succeeds.
Expected resultThese commands should now work:
silan config
silan content tree
silan guideDo not configure Docker, a server, or MCP yet. Episode 3 only needs the local workspace you now have.
Where the desktop workbench fitsThe visual desktop workbench can edit and review the same content, but it currently runs from a full Silan Viking source checkout. It is not installed by silan init and is not required for this guide.

For a new external workspace, continue with the CLI and any Markdown editor. Packaged desktop onboarding remains in progress.