Guide

Getting started

This guide will walk you through the basics of using Overplane to build software.

Overplane is a small, single-binary tool written in the Go programming language that runs on your local machine. It operates on a numbered sequence of Markdown files called specs, which are simple, human-readable descriptions of the software you want to build.

Overplane itself runs completely locally on your machine, but requires access to one or more authenticated AI coding agents to generate code.

Prepare System

Minimum Requirements

Overplane requires the following minimum requirements to run.

• Valid credentials (API keys) for at least one supported AI coding agent, such as Claude Code , Codex , or OpenCode .
• A local container runtime like Docker or Podman .
• On Windows, WSL2 is required.

Get Overplane

The next step is to install the overplane command on your system. There are many ways to achieve this.

1. Direct Download

You can find the latest binary release of Overplane for your platform on the download page. Download the binary for your platform and place it in your system's PATH.

2. Node Package Manager (NPM)

NPM is the standard package manager for Node.js. It includes the npx command, which retrieves and runs the latest version of Overplane from the npm registry.

> npx -y overplane

3. Go Toolchain

The Go language toolchain can be used to retrieve and build the latest version of Overplane from GitHub .

> go install github.com/overplane/overplane@latest

Check Your System

Run overplane with no arguments to confirm the install. The welcome banner summarizes your environment at a glance.

Run overplane check for a full dependency report on container engines, API keys, and git.