User guide

Ask your project — Contorium is a local Cognitive Interaction Layer (CIL) on a Project Intelligence Layer (PIL). Install IDE, MCP, or CLI; all share the same .contora/ folder in your project.

New user

Quick start

Ask via CLI, MCP, or IDE — choose an entry point and daily workflow.

Setup

Install & use

Install IDE, MCP, or CLI · usage scenarios · uninstall.

Interactive

MCP setup wizard

Step-by-step wiring for Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor.

IDE

IDE extension

Ask Contorium, Cortex panels, focus, Transfer Context.

MCP

MCP server

ask_project, one-line setup, Inspect · Transfer · Capture.

CLI

contorium ask, health, transfer, capture.

Dashboard

Runtime dashboard

Terminal status UI, Project History view — starts automatically.

CIL — Ask your project

Question	CLI	MCP
Natural language	`contorium ask "…"`	`ask_project`
Project history	`contorium history`	`get_project_history`
Decisions	`contorium decisions`	`get_decisions`
Health	`contorium health`	`get_cognitive_health`

What happens automatically

MCP spawns when you open Codex / Claude / Cursor (after one-time setup)
.contora/ is created or merged on first use
New AI chats can prompt to inject project context (Y/n)
Dashboard shows Cognitive State in the terminal