Getting Started
One catalog, every harness. Start here for the quickstart, the vocabulary, and the architecture.
Podium holds reusable AI agent artifacts in one catalog and translates them into the file layouts Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and other harnesses read. An artifact is a directory, so the scripts and references it bundles travel with it into every layout.
Start with the quickstart. It uses a local directory and podium sync, so the
authoring and materialization loop is visible before any server concept appears.
Reading order
| Page | What it covers | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Why Podium | What "one catalog, every harness" means feature by feature, when Podium applies, when a simpler alternative is enough, and how it compares to adjacent tools. Read first when evaluating. | ~10 minutes |
| Quickstart | Install the CLI, write one skill, materialize it into Claude Code, and see it load. The local tier needs no daemon and no setup beyond the CLI. | ~5 minutes |
| Concepts | The definitions the rest of the docs link to: artifact, type, domain, registry, layer, visibility, harness, profile, materialization, and meta-tools. | ~15 minutes |
| How it works | Component overview, where each feature runs, the deployment tiers, and where state lives. | ~15 minutes |
Features and where they are covered
| Feature | Covered in |
|---|---|
| Cross-harness delivery | Configure your harness |
| Domains and subdomains | Domains |
| Selective materialization | Selective materialization |
| Progressive discovery | Browsing the catalog |
| Layered composition | Layered composition |
| Access control | Access control |
Where to go next
After the quickstart, choose the guide that fits the task. Many workflows involve both authoring artifacts and consuming them.
| Goal | Next | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Write artifacts | Authoring guide | Artifact types, frontmatter, bundled resources, how DOMAIN.md works, and when to use rule modes and hooks. |
| Use artifacts in a harness | Consuming guide | Configure Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Claude Cowork, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Pi, or Hermes, narrow what a workspace receives, browse the catalog from the agent, and work through the SDKs. |
| Run Podium for a team or organization | Deployment guide | Pick a tier (local, single node, or clustered), run it, and handle day-two operations, governance, and OIDC. |
| Build against the API | Reference | CLI, HTTP API, frontmatter schema, error codes, and glossary. |