Reference

Find Presswork commands, configuration, Profiles, Creation, Check Reports, and domain language.

Use these reference pages for exact command and report contracts:

CLI covers the check, create, and skills command families, including arguments, options, output, and exit status.
Check Report defines complete and incomplete reports, JSON fields, ordering, diagnostics, and recovery.
Glossary projects the canonical Presswork terms from CONTEXT.md for user-facing lookup.

Start with Getting Started or Concepts. On this page, use Configuration, Profiles, or Creation.

Configuration

Presswork reads only presswork.json at the Repository Root. When that file is absent, Presswork uses basic@1. A present configuration requires version: 1 and one complete Profile identity.

Configuration can add Documentation Directories, Root Documents, index policies, repository-defined Document Types, repository-specific skill guidance, and the supported github Markdown Dialect. Paths are repository-relative and use / separators.

Use the published Configuration JSON Schema in compatible editors:

{
  "$schema": "https://presswork.sh/schema/config.json",
  "version": 1,
  "profile": { "name": "basic", "version": 1 }
}

The npm package does not provide a schema export.

Profiles

A Profile is one complete repository-wide documentation policy. Presswork supports the Built-in Profile identities basic@1 and mattpocock@1. Selecting a Profile replaces the Basic Profile rather than extending or merging with it.

See Concepts for how Profiles, Rules, Recognized Documents, and Repository Roots work together.

Creation

A Document Type declares its Creation Policy. Use presswork create --list-types to inspect the available types and policies. A presswork policy can initialize one indexed Document Draft. An external policy names its owning workflow, while a manual policy leaves creation to ordinary repository tools.

Creation never overwrites an existing document and does not claim that a new Document Draft is complete. See the create command reference for syntax, fields, output, and failures.

Validation and Checks

Validation is Presswork’s read-only evaluation of repository documentation against the selected Profile. A Check discovers the Repository Root, loads policy, evaluates Recognized Documents with Rules, and produces a complete or explicitly incomplete Check Report.

See Check Report for report fields, deterministic ordering, JSON, streams, exit status, and recovery.

Return to Getting Started for the shortest path through setup.