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What is Terrain?

Terrain is a standardized, AI-friendly engineering environment built for the age of AI-assisted development. Point it at a Git repository and it delivers three things:

• 🗺️ Engineering knowledge — auto-generated, always-in-sync C4 docs and agent context, produced from your code and consumed by both humans and AI agents.
• 🤝 A standardized environment for AI agents — one shared "knowledge contract" (Skills, AGENTS.md, CLIs) so every coding agent reads the project the same way instead of blind-grepping the live repo.
• ⚙️ Auto-deployed agent enhancement tools — one command installs the toolchain your agents need (CodeGraph, RTK, preset Skills); no per-repo yak-shaving.

Terrain provides both GUI and CLI modes. Through the CLI, you can conveniently integrate engineering knowledge generation and Deepwiki's Q&A functionality into PR and CI/CD pipelines. Human developers use the Tauri desktop app or CLI. For specific usage of the CLI, see Terrain CLI Guides.

App preview

Project overview	Engineering knowledge	DeepWiki Q&A	Agent environment

From left to right: project list with freshness scores, auto-generated C4 docs, knowledge-grounded Q&A, and one-command agent tooling setup.

Three pillars at a glance

Pillar	Metaphor	What you get
Engineering knowledge assets	Map	Dual-track docs in .terrain/ — produced from code, consumed by humans and agents
Standardized AI environment	Roads	Skills, CLIs, and AGENTS.md that route agents to the right knowledge and tools
Agent enhancement tools	Gear	One-command deployment of CodeGraph, RTK, and preset Skills

Dual-track knowledge

Audience	Path	Format
Humans	.terrain/human/	Narrative C4 docs with Mermaid diagrams
AI agents	.terrain/agent/context.md	Structured architecture overview (≤ 14 KiB)
Source index	.terrain/agent/repomix.md	Repomix pack — grep/read on demand, not preloaded
Domain terms	.terrain/knowledge/	Business glossary and internal conventions

Knowledge factory

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Why Terrain?

Onboarding to a new codebase usually means days of reading source and stale wiki pages. Terrain compresses that to minutes: register a repo, run initialization, and get a full C4 doc set plus an agent-ready context pack.

Without Terrain	With Terrain
Architecture knowledge scattered across wikis, Slack, and senior engineers	Engineering knowledge assets generated from the actual codebase
AI assistants grep the live repo blindly	Agents read context.md first, then targeted repomix slices
Docs drift from code on every refactor	Incremental updates + freshness tracking; knowledge travels with Git branches
Every team reinvents "how to onboard an AI to our repo"	Env integration installs Skills, CodeGraph, RTK, and AGENTS.md snippets

Built for:

• Developers exploring or documenting a codebase
• Tech leads who want architecture docs that stay close to the code
• Teams adopting AI coding assistants and need a shared knowledge contract
• CI/CD pipelines that regenerate knowledge assets on merge
• ACP integrators wiring terrain tools into Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or compatible agents

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From Litho (deepwiki-rs) to Terrain

Terrain's knowledge engine is the direct successor of Litho, the AI documentation generator published as deepwiki-rs (1.7k★). Litho proved the core thesis at scale — generate architecture docs from code, keep them in sync, make them agent-ready. Terrain takes that successful practice and hardens it into a platform:

• Incremental knowledge-base updates. Instead of regenerating from scratch, Terrain tracks Git HEAD and working-tree state and updates only what changed, so the knowledge base stays fresh on every commit without the full cost (freshness scoring + resumable pipelines).
• Broad language & framework adaptation. The generation core is language-agnostic and tuned for Rust, TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, C#, and more, with framework-aware structure extraction.
• ACP mode for your agents. Terrain speaks the Agent Client Protocol, so Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Cursor can pull project knowledge through terrain tools instead of guessing.
• Litho Book, built in. The original Litho Book Markdown reader and its knowledge-grounded Q&A are now integrated into the Terrain desktop app — browse and ask in one place.

In short: if you liked Litho for docs, Terrain is Litho's knowledge core plus the environment, workflow, and agent bridge around it.

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Features & Capabilities

1. Engineering knowledge assets — generate & consume

Terrain turns a codebase into a dual-track knowledge base that both people and agents use. Born from Litho (deepwiki-rs, 1.7k★), it keeps the proven doc-generation core and adds incremental, multi-language, agent-connected delivery.

• Generate — a four-phase pipeline produces six standard human docs (overview, architecture, workflows, deep module exploration, boundary interfaces, database overview) plus a structured agent/context.md and a grep-friendly repomix.md source pack.
• Consume — DeepWiki answers natural-language questions over the knowledge base with citations and tool-call traces; external agents consume the same three layers through terrain tools.
• Stay fresh — incremental regeneration on code change and a freshness score that flags stale assets.
• Read & ask in one place — the integrated Litho Book reader and Q&A (formerly a separate tool) now live inside the desktop app.

The same Litho success story, now incremental, multi-language, and wired to your agents.

2. Standardized, AI-friendly engineering environment

A shared "knowledge contract" so every coding agent reads your repo the same way:

• AGENTS.md — managed snippets that point agents to the knowledge layers first.
• Preset Skills — standard playbooks (terrain-knowledge → repomix → codegraph → rtk) your agents can load.
• Conventions as trail markers — consistent workflow and access patterns across repositories.

3. Auto-deployed agent enhancement tools

One command wires up the toolchain your agents need — no per-repo setup:

• CodeGraph — symbol callers/callees/impact queries via bunx codegraph.
• RTK — shell-output token optimizer that saves agents tokens.
• Terrain CLI / terrain tools — scan, assets, and ACP access.
• terrain env apply installs Skills, CLIs, and AGENTS.md in the right dependency order (terrain-knowledge → repomix → codegraph → rtk).

4. SDD — standardized development workflow

Four sequential phases, each producing a reviewable Markdown artifact:

Phase	Output	Execution
1. Requirements	1.requirements.md	Native LLM
2. Technical design	2.tech-design.md	Native LLM
3. Code generation	3.implementation.md + repo changes	ACP agent
4. Code review	4.code-review.md	Native LLM

Session outputs live under ~/.terrain/sdd/{project}/sessions/{id}/outputs/ (local, not versioned).

5. Freshness tracking

Git HEAD and dirty-state monitoring score knowledge assets. Agents should down-weight context when freshness_score < 50.

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Architecture

Terrain is an agent-first engineering environment platform. For each Git repository it delivers three coordinated solutions:

Pillar	Metaphor	What agents get
Engineering knowledge assets	Map	Structured assets in .terrain/ — produced from code, consumed through layered access
Standardized AI environment	Roads	Skills, CLIs, and AGENTS.md that route agents to the right knowledge and tools
Development workflow (SDD)	Trail markers	A four-phase convention from requirements through code review

Knowledge as the map, tools as the roads, conventions as the trail markers.

Humans use the desktop app or CLI; external coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, …) use the same contract via terrain tools (JSON stdout). Assets live in-repo (.terrain/ travels with branches); ~/.terrain/registry.json holds project pointers only.

System overview

① Engineering knowledge assets — the map

Dual-track assets from one factory — narrative human/ for people, structured agent/ for machines:

.terrain/
├── agent/context.md    macro overview
├── agent/repomix.md    grep-friendly source pack
├── human/              engineering knowledge docs (from Litho)
├── knowledge/          domain glossary
└── .meta/freshness.json

Produce (scan/pack are offline; LLM/ACP where noted):

Git ──scan──► index.md
    ──pack──► repomix.md
    ──context (LLM)──► context.md
    ──docs (ACP)──► human/ + .litho-agent/ checkpoints
    ──track──► freshness.json

Consume — DeepWiki and terrain tools share the same three layers:

Layer	Source	API
Macro	agent/context.md	read-context
Meso	human/, knowledge/	search, read-doc
Micro	agent/repomix.md	grep-pack → read-pack-file

When sources conflict: repomix > CodeGraph > context.md > human/. Down-weight macro context when freshness_score < 50.

② Standardized AI environment — the roads

terrain env apply installs the navigation layer so agents don't improvise:

Component	Purpose
Skills	Standard playbooks — terrain-knowledge → repomix → codegraph → rtk
Tools	~/.terrain/bin/ — CodeGraph, RTK, terrain CLI (terrain tools for ACP)
AGENTS.md	Managed snippets — knowledge-first workflow, repomix for code, RTK for shell

③ Development workflow — the trail markers

SDD defines a repeatable path; each phase produces a reviewable Markdown artifact:

Phase	Output	Engine
Requirements	1.requirements.md	Native LLM
Tech design	2.tech-design.md	Native LLM
Codegen	3.implementation.md + repo changes	ACP agent
Code review	4.code-review.md	Native LLM

The knowledge pipeline uses the same resumable pattern — research checkpoints under .terrain/.litho-agent/.

Runtime

graph LR
    Chan[Desktop · CLI] --> Intel[terrain-agent]
    Chan --> Core[terrain-core]
    Intel --> Core
    Intel --> LLM[LLM]
    Intel --> ACP[ACP]
    Core --> FS[".terrain/ · Git · registry"]

Core handles scan, pack, search, freshness, and env without an LLM. Agent orchestrates DeepWiki, knowledge generation, SDD, and context generation — lightweight tasks via native LLM, heavy tool-using work via ACP subprocess.

.terrain/ directory (per project)

{your-repo}/.terrain/
├── index.md                 # Project index (from scan)
├── agent/
│   ├── context.md           # Macro architecture context for agents
│   ├── repomix.md           # Source pack (generated, often gitignored)
│   └── meta.json            # Pack metadata
├── human/                   # Engineering knowledge docs (1.概述.md, 2.架构.md, …)
├── knowledge/               # Domain glossary and conventions
├── .meta/
│   ├── sync.json            # Scan sync state
│   └── freshness.json       # Asset freshness scores
└── .litho-agent/            # Litho/knowledge research workspace (transient)

Project registration (slug ↔ repo path) is stored locally at ~/.terrain/registry.json — pointers only, not knowledge files.

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Ecosystem

Terrain composes with the tools your AI workflow already uses:

Component	Role
Claude Code / Codex / OpenCode / ACP agents	Execute knowledge composition, SDD codegen, and tool calls in an isolated process
Repomix	Packs source into a grep-friendly index for agents
CodeGraph	Symbol callers/callees/impact queries via bunx codegraph
RTK	Compresses shell output to save tokens (@terrain-ai/rtk on npm, or ~/.terrain/bin/rtk)
Terrain CLI	Scan, assets, terrain tools for ACP (@terrain-ai/cli on npm, or ~/.terrain/bin/terrain)
Preset Skills	LLM workflow instructions in preset_skills/ (knowledge, SDD, Ask, Context)
DeepWiki / Litho Book	Knowledge-grounded Q&A and Markdown reader, integrated in the desktop UI

Trust model for coding agents: when sources conflict, repomix source > codegraph > context.md > human docs.

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Getting Started

Use Prebuilt Installer (Recommend)

Recommend downloading the pre-compiled software package from the Github Release, ready to use out of the box.

Build from source (Optional & DIY)

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.94+ (rust-toolchain.toml pins the version)
• NodeJS /Bun — Node toolchain for frontend and optional tools
• LLM access (optional) — OpenAI-compatible API, Ollama, or LM Studio (configure in the desktop app Settings panel)
• Mainstream coding agent — e.g. Codex, DeepSeek Harness, or Claude Code, for knowledge composition and SDD codegen

Build

# Clone and install frontend dependencies
git clone https://github.com/sopaco/terrain.git
cd terrain
bun install

# Build Rust workspace (CLI + libraries)
cargo build --release

# CLI binary
./target/release/terrain --help

# Desktop app (development)
bun run dev:app

License

MIT — see LICENSE.