2. Install

You need Node 22.18 or newer (ucm-ts is tested on 24). Its only dependency is TypeScript.

2.1 Get ucm

From a checkout of the repository:

pnpm install && pnpm build
npm install -g "$(cd dist/package && npm pack --silent)"
ucm help

That installs the ucm command (also available as ucm-ts, since Unison's own CLI is called ucm too).

If you're working on ucm-ts itself, run it straight from the source instead:

alias ucm="node /path/to/ucm-ts/packages/cli/bin/ucm.js"

2.2 Make a codebase

A codebase lives in a directory, the way a git repository does:

mkdir myproject && cd myproject
ucm init

initialized codebase in /Users/you/myproject/.ucm
next: run `ucm` and edit scratch.ts

ucm init creates:

• .ucm/: the codebase itself (code, names, history), and things generated from it;
• package.json, with the #codebase import your files use to reach stored definitions;
• tsconfig.json, so your editor's TypeScript agrees with ucm's;
• scratch.ts, a file to start writing in.

Only .ucm/codebase.sqlite holds anything that can't be rebuilt; see files and folders.

2.3 Set up your editor

Any editor works, since you write ordinary TypeScript. In VS Code, the ucm-ts extension shows each definition's status as you type, with buttons to add and update, watch values inline, and your codebase in a sidebar.

2.4 Next

Follow your first codebase.

built from 5890e54f