Tools

Create and manage SurfContext projects with these tools, or set everything up by hand.

TaskSurf

Export your workspace as a SurfContext package

Available

TaskSurf is an AI-native task management platform that can export your entire workspace -- tasks, team context, agent configurations -- as a SurfContext-conformant package. The exported CONTEXT.md and .context/ directory can be dropped directly into any code repository.

  • Generates ARDS v3.0 conformant output
  • Includes version ledger for change tracking
  • Exports agent definitions with proper frontmatter
  • Maps team knowledge to .context/docs/ format
Visit tasksurf.com

SurfContext CLI

Command-line tool for initializing and managing projects

Coming April 2026

The SurfContext CLI will provide quick project scaffolding, platform file generation, and structure validation from the command line.

Terminal
# Initialize a new SurfContext project
npx surfcontext init

# Generate platform files from CONTEXT.md
npx surfcontext generate

# Validate your SurfContext structure
npx surfcontext validate

Planned features:

  • init -- Scaffold a new SurfContext project with interactive prompts
  • generate -- Generate platform files from CONTEXT.md using surfcontext.json config
  • validate -- Check project structure against ARDS v3.0 requirements
  • sync -- Detect drift between canonical and generated files

MCP Server

Expose .context/ content as MCP tools for any AI agent

Coming Q2 2026

The SurfContext MCP server bridges ARDS documentation into any MCP-compatible AI agent. It exposes your project context, agents, docs, guides, and plans as standardized tools.

Standard tool names (ARDS v3.0):

Tool Description
surfcontext_read_context Read the root context file
surfcontext_list_agents List available agent definitions
surfcontext_list_docs List knowledge docs with last-updated dates
surfcontext_list_guides List guides with confidence levels
surfcontext_list_plans List plans by category
surfcontext_search Search across all ARDS content

Configure in surfcontext.json under the mcp field. See the MCP Integration spec.

Manual Setup

Create files by hand following the specification

Available

SurfContext requires no dependencies or tooling. You can set up a conforming project with just a text editor and a terminal.

Terminal
# 1. Create the root context
touch CONTEXT.md

# 2. Create the context directory structure
mkdir -p .context/agents .context/docs .context/skills

# 3. Create the manifest
touch surfcontext.json

# 4. (Optional) Generate platform files
cp CONTEXT.md CLAUDE.md
cp CONTEXT.md AGENTS.md

See the Getting Started guide for complete file content examples, or the specification for the full format reference.

Building a tool?

SurfContext is an open standard. If you are building a developer tool or AI coding agent, you can add SurfContext support by reading CONTEXT.md and surfcontext.json from the project root. The format is CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed -- free to implement and distribute.