# Groundrule (npm · @groundrule/cli)

Your repository's engineering standards for coding agents: rules per file, CI check, rule proposals.

- Trust score: 82/100 (high trust)
- Change this week: +1
- Registry status: active
- Liveness: live
- Owner verified: no
- Last scored: 2026-11-05

## Components

- npm · `@groundrule/cli`: 82/100 (this document), [markdown](https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli.md), [page](https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli)

## Channel facts

- Registry: `npm`
- Package: `@groundrule/cli`
- Version: `0.23.1`
- Transport: `stdio`

## Trust breakdown

How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically from public evidence about the published package, including repeated runs of it in an isolated sandbox, and we only credit what we can confirm. Scores are 0–100 per category. Scoring method: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring (what has changed: https://verifymcp.io/docs/scoring/changelog)

Scored 2026-11-05.

- **Supply Chain Security**: 95/100
  - No malware found by supply-chain analysis.
  - CVE check failed: a known medium-severity CVE affects glob 13.0.6, reached via @groundrule/core > sigstore > @sigstore/sign > make-fetch-happen > cacache > glob. A fixed version is available.
  - No install/post-install scripts declared.
  - 6 of 62 dependencies flagged as unhealthy.
- **Provenance & Transparency**: 100/100
  - Source repository is publicly reachable at the declared URL.
  - Cryptographically verified build provenance (signed, bound to Metricall-AI-Lab/groundrule-oss).
  - Clear OSI-approved license (Apache-2.0).
  - Actively maintained (last published 5 days ago).
  - Publishes a security disclosure policy (SECURITY.md).
- **Schema Quality & AI Usability**: 70/100
  - AI-judged instruction clarity (excellent).
  - Context-footprint check failed: tool/resource definitions use about 685 tokens (~171/item across 4 items; 4 tools + 0 resources), over budget; trim descriptions and params.
  - Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples.
- **Stability & Change Management**: 23/100
  - Stability observed for 7 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.
- **Tool Coverage**: 100/100
  - 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).
  - 100% of tool parameters carry a description.
- **Tool Safety**: 100/100
  - No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.
  - We read all 4 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.
  - An AI judge read all 5 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.
- **Capabilities**: 100/100
  - Implements a supported MCP spec version (2025-11-25); the latest is 2026-07-28.

## Install

### How do I install the Groundrule MCP server?

Groundrule runs locally as an npm package, launched with npx -y @groundrule/cli. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.

### Claude

```bash
claude mcp add metricall-ai-lab-groundrule -- npx -y @groundrule/cli
```

### Cursor

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metricall-ai-lab-groundrule": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@groundrule/cli"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### VS Code

```json
{
  "servers": {
    "metricall-ai-lab-groundrule": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@groundrule/cli"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Codex

```bash
codex mcp add metricall-ai-lab-groundrule -- npx -y @groundrule/cli
```

### opencode

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "metricall-ai-lab-groundrule": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@groundrule/cli"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}
```

### OpenClaw

```bash
openclaw mcp add metricall-ai-lab-groundrule --command npx --arg -y --arg @groundrule/cli
```

### Hermes

```yaml
mcp_servers:
  metricall-ai-lab-groundrule:
    command: "npx"
    args: ["-y", "@groundrule/cli"]
```

### Netclaw

```json
{
  "McpServers": {
    "metricall-ai-lab-groundrule": {
      "Transport": "stdio",
      "Command": "npx",
      "Arguments": [
        "-y",
        "@groundrule/cli"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

### Vellum

```bash
assistant mcp add metricall-ai-lab-groundrule -t stdio -c npx -a -y @groundrule/cli
```

### Other

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metricall-ai-lab-groundrule": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@groundrule/cli"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

## Changelog

Every change recorded for this component, newest first. Days that predate change tracking, or that we cannot explain, say so: "we were watching and nothing happened" and "we were not watching" are different claims.

### 2026-11-04 (score 82, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 17 to 20. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 5 days of observed history at the previous scan, 6 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-11-01 (score 81, +1)

No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 7 to 10. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 2 days of observed history at the previous scan, 3 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.

### 2026-10-31 (score 80, −1)

- [security regression] CVE-2026-118764 affects this package: medium
- [security regression] CVE-2026-118773 affects this package: medium
- [security regression] Known CVEs: pass → fail

### 2026-10-29 (score 81)

First indexed and scored.

## MCP tools (4)

### `list_standards` (~95 tokens)

List engineering standards

List the engineering standards in effect in this repository: ID, title, severity, rollout stage for organization rules, and what each requires. Follow every rule listed; at advise, checks report findings as warnings, and at enforce they fail at the rule's severity. Also use it to check whether a rule already exists before proposing one.

Input parameters:

- `query` (string): Only standards whose ID, title, or requirement contain these words.

### `rules_for` (~89 tokens)

Rules for the files you're about to change

The engineering standards that name the given files (by path or language), blocking first, each with what it requires and how to comply. Call it with the repository-relative paths you are about to create or edit, before editing. Rules that apply everywhere are not repeated here; they are in the agent file.

Input parameters:

- `files` (array, required): Repository-relative paths, e.g. src/payments/refund.ts.

### `check` (~148 tokens)

Check changes against the standards

Run the team's Groundrule checks on your changes, the same checks CI runs. By default it checks uncommitted changes (staged, unstaged and new files). Call it before you finish a change and fix every blocking finding; warnings don't fail the check, but fix the ones in code you wrote. Only findings the change introduced are reported. In a repository connected to its workspace, the counts per rule go to the workspace (never paths, lines or code).

Input parameters:

- `all` (boolean): Check every file, not only changes. Slower; reports existing problems too.
- `base` (string): Check everything changed since this git ref instead, e.g. origin/main for a whole branch.

### `propose_rule` (~209 tokens)

Propose a rule to the team

Propose an engineering rule for this team's Groundrule rulebook, for reviewers to accept or reject. Use it when the developer corrects how code here should be written and says, or confirms when you ask, that it should apply to everyone from now on (for example: "we never call Stripe directly, use PaymentsGateway"). Do not use it for one-off preferences, for rules list_standards already shows, or without the developer's agreement. Write the rule as one clear sentence. Tell the developer you proposed it and that a reviewer decides.

Input parameters:

- `example` (string): A short code example of the right or wrong way, if helpful.
- `file` (string): Repository-relative path where it came up, if any.
- `line` (integer): Line in that file, if any.
- `rule` (string, required): The rule, as one clear sentence: what to do or never do.
- `why` (string): Why, in the developer's words, if they said.

## Diagnostics

Captured diagnostic sections: Provenance, Vulnerabilities, Dependencies. The full working is on the page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli#diagnostics

## Score history

- 2026-11-05: 82
- 2026-11-04: 82
- 2026-11-03: 81
- 2026-11-02: 81
- 2026-11-01: 81
- 2026-10-31: 80
- 2026-10-30: 81
- 2026-10-29: 81

## Common questions

### What is the Groundrule MCP server?

Groundrule is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as io.github.Metricall-AI-Lab/groundrule. Your repository's engineering standards for coding agents: rules per file, CI check, rule proposals. This page covers its npm package (@groundrule/cli).

### Is the Groundrule MCP server safe to use?

Groundrule scores 82 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. We recorded 2 known advisories against it as of 5 November 2026. It declares no install or post-install scripts. Its build provenance is signed and verified. That is a record of what we were able to check automatically, not an endorsement. The category breakdown on this page shows every signal behind the number, including the ones we could not confirm.

### What tools does the Groundrule MCP server expose?

Groundrule exposes 4 tools: list_standards, rules_for, check, propose_rule. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 541 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.

### Is the Groundrule MCP server still maintained?

Groundrule is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 5 November 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.

### What licence is the Groundrule MCP server under?

Groundrule declares the Apache-2.0 licence, which is OSI-approved. That covers the source only, and says nothing about the cost of any service it calls.

## Links

- npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@groundrule/cli
- Socket report: https://socket.dev/npm/package/@groundrule/cli
- Repository: https://github.com/Metricall-AI-Lab/groundrule-oss
- Website: https://docs.groundrule.dev/developers/agents/mcp/
- Changelog RSS feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli.xml
- Changelog JSON feed: https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli.json
- HTML version of this page: https://verifymcp.io/servers/metricall-ai-lab-groundrule/groundrule-cli