# SPT developer docs

spt-core is a **harness-independent core for an agent ecosystem**: inter-agent
messaging, live-agent lifecycle, terminal hosting, seamless self-update, and
zero-config cross-machine networking — shipped as a single canonical binary
(`spt` / `spt.exe`).

It lets coding agents running under different harnesses talk to each other —
across sessions, across projects, and across machines — with no central server.

> **Pick your path:**
>
> - **Developer** — you want agents on your machines messaging each other:
>   start with the [messaging quickstart](quickstart/messaging.md) (one
>   install line + three commands, under 10 minutes).
> - **Adapter developer / dev-agent** — you're integrating a harness or
>   building a shell against the public contract: start with the
>   [adapter quickstart](quickstart/adapter.md), then the
>   [harness contract](harness-contract/overview.md).

## Install

<!-- [doc->REQ-INSTALL-BOOTSTRAP-VERB] -->
Non-interactive, through the GitHub CLI (the release channel is private —
see [Installing](reference/install.md) for the full steps):

```sh
gh auth login       # once per machine, an account that can read the channel
gh release download --repo BigscreenVR/spt-bs-releases --pattern 'spt-x86_64-linux'
chmod +x ./spt-x86_64-linux && ./spt-x86_64-linux install
# Windows: --pattern 'spt-x86_64-windows.exe', then .\spt-x86_64-windows.exe install
```

Verify:

```console
$ spt --version
spt 0.1.0
```

<!-- [doc->REQ-DOCS-3] Diátaxis four-mode separation + one-canonical-way, stated as the corpus's contract -->
## How these docs are organized

Each capability vertical carries the same four modes, never mixed: an
**overview** (why it exists + how it fits), a **tutorial** where one ships in
v0.1, **how-to guides**, and **reference**. There is one canonical way to do
each thing; deprecated or alternate paths are marked when they exist.

<!-- [doc->REQ-DOCS-1] the dual-audience contract surfaced to the second audience: agent exports, .md negotiation, schema, CLI-help-as-docs -->
## For AI agents reading this

These docs are served node-locally at `http://localhost:5474` (each release
ships its own version-matched copy; `spt docs url` prints the resolved URL).

- [`llms.txt`](http://localhost:5474/llms.txt) — curated
  index of these docs. [`llms-full.txt`](http://localhost:5474/llms-full.txt)
  — the full concatenated export.
- Append `.md` to any page URL for raw markdown (about 90% fewer tokens than
  the HTML).
- [`manifest.schema.json`](http://localhost:5474/manifest.schema.json)
  — the machine-readable adapter-manifest contract. Validate your manifest
  against it before registering.
- `spt <command> --help` is a first-class documentation surface; the
  [CLI reference](cli/reference.md) is generated from it and cannot drift.