ColdBox CLI AI Setup

Set up AI coding assistants on a ColdBox project with coldbox ai install — agents, guidelines, skills, and MCP servers.

The ColdBox CLI gives AI coding assistants deep knowledge of your project, its modules, and the BoxLang/CFML ecosystem — all living in a .agents/ directory at your project root.

Install the CLI

box install coldbox-cli

Set Up AI Integration

# Interactive wizard
coldbox ai install

# Or bake it into a new app
coldbox create app myApp --ai

The wizard asks you to:

1. Choose your AI agents (Claude, Copilot, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, Kilo Code, OpenCode, Pi)

2. Select your project language (BoxLang, CFML, or Hybrid)

3. Configure guidelines, skills, and MCP servers

If existing agent files (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules) weren't created by the CLI, you'll be prompted to Overwrite, Merge (CLI section prepended, your content preserved), or Skip. Use --force to overwrite without prompting.

What Gets Created

.agents/
├── guidelines/          # Framework documentation
│   ├── core/           # boxlang.md, cfml.md, coldbox.md
│   ├── modules/        # Auto-discovered from installed modules
│   ├── custom/         # Your project-specific guidelines
│   └── overrides/      # Your customized versions
├── skills/             # Task cookbooks from skills.boxlang.io
├── mcp-servers/        # MCP server configurations
└── manifest.json       # AI integration metadata

Agent config files land at your project root: CLAUDE.md for Claude, AGENTS.md shared by Copilot/Codex/OpenCode/Kilo/Pi, .cursorrules for Cursor, GEMINI.md for Gemini.

Everyday Commands

coldbox ai refresh      # Sync after installing modules
coldbox ai info         # Show current configuration
coldbox ai doctor       # Health check
coldbox ai stats        # Context consumption with token estimates
coldbox ai uninstall    # Remove AI integration

Keep It in Sync

Run coldbox ai refresh whenever you install or update modules — module-provided guidelines and skills are auto-discovered and inventoried, and MCP documentation servers are matched to what's installed.

Go Deeper

Module authoring, custom skills, the override system, and team workflows are covered in the full guide: Agentic ColdBox.

See Also

• Skills & Guidelines

• cbMCP — live app introspection

• ColdBox CLI — full command reference