Prerequisites

Set these up once per machine. Get started assumes all of them.

Node and Git

Use macOS or Linux with Git and Node.js 24.15.0 or later. Windows does not support engine execution.

node --version

A package token

Engineering11 packages are private. Which registry you use depends on who you are, and a token issued for one registry fails against the other.

You are	Registry	Token
A client or partner	Cloudsmith	The entitlement token from your Engineering11 onboarding email
An Engineering11 engineer	GitHub Packages	A GitHub personal access token with read:packages

Put the token in your environment, for example in your shell profile:

export ENGINEERING11_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN=<your token>

The registry lines in your user .npmrc

Add the two lines for your registry to ~/.npmrc. They reference the variable, never a literal token.

Clients (Cloudsmith). The auth line repeats the whole path, trailing slash included:

@engineering11:registry=https://npm.cloudsmith.io/engineering11/engineering11/
//npm.cloudsmith.io/engineering11/engineering11/:_authToken=${ENGINEERING11_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}

Engineers (GitHub Packages):

@engineering11:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com
//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${ENGINEERING11_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN}

Use the user file, not a project .npmrc. The first npx or npm install -g runs before any project exists, so only the user file is read. A project file alone answers that first command with a 404.

e11 on your PATH

npm install -g @engineering11/e11-foundry
e11 --version

Installed skills call e11 board, so e11 doctor checks that the command is on your PATH.

When init says the registry is missing

If you choose a knowledge base and neither .npmrc names the Engineering11 registry, init sets everything else up and refuses only its knowledge step:

  knowledge      refused  no @engineering11 registry in .npmrc: add the registry and token lines (guide: start/prerequisites), then e11 init

Add the lines above, then run e11 init again. Choosing Just Foundry never reads the registry.