Quick Start

Zero to a real Fornax finding, local-only, no cloud account. This reproduces the same local path used to validate Fornax's core loop (FORNX-34).

Prerequisites

Rust (stable) and Cargo — rustc --version should print something.
macOS or Linux (Fornax uses a Unix Domain Socket for adapter → daemon transport; there is no Windows support in v0.0.1).
Claude Code, if you want to see live findings from a real session (Codex works too — see Codex integration — and so does OpenCode, with narrower event coverage and manual setup — see OpenCode integration).

1. Get the binaries

Fastest path: download the prebuilt archive from the latest GitHub Release (macOS/Linux; no Windows build) and extract it — see Installation for the full binary list and checksum verification. The commands below assume you built from source instead; substitute the extracted archive's path if you downloaded a release.

git clone https://github.com/horonomy/fornax-core.git
cd fornax-core
cargo build --workspace

Expected output ends with something like:

   Compiling fornax-daemon v0.0.1 (.../fornax-core/crates/fornax-daemon)
   Compiling fornax-cli v0.0.1 (.../fornax-core/crates/fornax-cli)
    Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 12.34s

2. Start the daemon

./target/debug/fornax-daemon &

The daemon creates ~/.fornax/ (override with FORNAX_HOME), opens a Unix Domain Socket at ~/.fornax/fornax.sock for adapter events, and serves a localhost HTTP API on port 4317 (override with FORNAX_HTTP_PORT) for the CLI and dashboard. Nothing here talks to the network beyond 127.0.0.1.

3. Wire up the Claude Code adapter

See Claude Code integration for the full hook configuration. The short version — add to your Claude Code settings:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [{"hooks": [{"type": "command", "command": "fornax-hook-claude"}]}],
    "PostToolUse": [{"hooks": [{"type": "command", "command": "fornax-hook-claude"}]}],
    "Stop": [{"hooks": [{"type": "command", "command": "fornax-hook-claude"}]}]
  }
}

Put target/debug on your PATH (or use the absolute path to fornax-hook-claude) so Claude Code can find the binary.

4. Do some real work, then check the verdict

Run a Claude Code session that does something checkable — e.g. ask it to run your test suite and report the result. Then:

./target/debug/fornax status

🛡 ✓ VERIFIED

or, if the agent's claim didn't match the evidence:

🛡 ✕ CONTRADICTED

For the full story behind a verdict:

./target/debug/fornax detail

🛡 ✕ CONTRADICTED
  claim:     All tests passed
  rationale: most recent test-runner evidence exit_code=1, contradicting the claim
  verifier:  test_result_verifier_v1
  when:      2026-08-29T03:14:07Z

See First finding walkthrough for exactly this scenario, reproduced end-to-end with a real captured payload. For going deeper than a single verdict — the full evidence graph behind it, and an actionable recommendation computed on top — see Evidence graph and Fusion & decision.

5. Optional: connect to Beta

Everything above is entirely local — no account, no network access beyond 127.0.0.1, required. Fornax also has an opt-in, Beta hosted sync tier for teams that want a shared findings dashboard instead of just the local CLI/dashboard. It is not the default and not required, but self-service registration is live:

Cloud sync is gated by an explicit environment variable (FORNAX_CLOUD_SYNC_ENABLED) that defaults to off — see Privacy & Redaction for exactly what it does and does not send.
Public self-service device registration is live (FORNX-137, 2026-09-19):
```
curl -X POST https://fornax.horo.run/v1/devices/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"device_id": "<a name you choose>", "label": "<a label>"}'
```
The response's credential field is your FORNAX_CLOUD_AUTH_TOKEN — no operator involved. See the hosted findings dashboard (the SaaS app boundary, not this docs site's own canonical host) to inspect what synced.

If you just want to evaluate Fornax's core loop, you can stop at step 4 — Beta cloud sync adds a hosted dashboard on top, it doesn't change anything about local verification.

Installation for a persistent setup (PATH, running the daemon as a background service, project-scoped vs. global hooks).
Configuration for every environment variable Fornax reads.
Local dashboard for the browser view of the same data fornax detail prints.

Prerequisites​

1. Get the binaries​

2. Start the daemon​

3. Wire up the Claude Code adapter​

4. Do some real work, then check the verdict​

5. Optional: connect to Beta​

Next​