Docs

Build with an AI agent

The Alien agent skills are instructions your coding agent loads to work with Alien. With them, it reads your repository, proposes what runs in your customers' environments, writes alien.ts (the file that describes what you deploy), and verifies it locally.

You can also do each step by hand: see the Quickstart. Every docs page is also available as Markdown for the agent to read.

Install the skills

From your repository:

npx skills add alienplatform/skills

This installs the alien-architecture and alien-integration skills into your agent's skills folder:

SkillWhat it does
alien-architectureInventories your components and the data each one touches, proposes two or three options for what runs remotely (the whole product, a split, an agent, or a cache) with their tradeoffs, and writes a decision record. It stops for your choice before writing code.
alien-integrationImplements the split you chose: alien.ts, handler code, inputs, local verification with alien dev, tests, a release workflow, and the setup flow in your product (Deployment UX).

The skills ask before anything leaves your machine, such as publishing a release or creating a deployment (one customer's running copy of your software).

Start with a prompt

Paste this into your agent from the root of your repository:

Design the split
Help me add Alien (https://alien.dev/docs) to this product so it meets an enterprise customer's data requirements. 1. Install the Alien skills: npx skills add alienplatform/skills 2. Use the alien-architecture skill. Inspect this repository, including its services, Dockerfiles, Helm charts or Docker Compose files, and Terraform. Ask me what the customer requires, then propose the smallest option that meets it: customer-managed keys, local AI models, or a deployment in their cloud or on their servers. 3. Wait for my choice before editing. 4. Use the alien-integration skill to build it and verify one request end to end. Treat the installed packages and `alien --help` as the API source of truth. Don't publish a release or create a customer deployment without asking.

To build a specific piece instead, describe the requirement in your customer's words:

Build a specific piece
Use the alien-architecture skill. Our customer requires that <the requirement, in their words>. Inventory this repository, propose the smallest piece that meets it, and wait for my choice. Then use the alien-integration skill to build it and verify it with alien dev.

Give your agent the docs

Every page has a Markdown version. Add .md to any docs URL:

https://alien.dev/docs/guide/how-alien-works.md

Agents that send Accept: text/markdown get Markdown from the normal URL. The full docs index for agents is at /llms.txt, and the complete text is at /llms-full.txt.

Each page also has Copy Markdown and Open buttons at the top, for pasting a page into a chat.

Get better results

  • Name the requirement. "Their data can't leave their AWS account" leads to a different design than "they want a dedicated deployment". The skill asks, but say it up front.
  • Review the split before code. The decision record lists what crosses between your side and the remote environment on every call. Read it.
  • Let the agent run alien dev. Local verification catches most mistakes before any cloud account is involved. It needs Docker running.
  • Use the CLI as the source of truth. alien --help and the installed package types describe the version you have.

Next

Releases

Publish your stack as a release, move channels to roll it out, pin deployments, and automate it from CI.

Overview

Let each customer hold the key that makes their data readable, in their own AWS KMS, Google Cloud KMS, or Azure Key Vault, and revoke it at any time.

On this page

Install the skillsStart with a promptGive your agent the docsGet better resultsNext