Install

Install

You need Claude Code (the latest version; PA3 builds on its current features and keeps no fallbacks), a Claude subscription (Max 20x, Max 5x or Pro), Python 3.12 or newer, and git, on Windows 11, WSL, Linux or macOS. Every switch, the upgrade rules and the migration of a 2.0 project are in INSTALL.md.

1. Once per machine

Download this repository (Code → Download ZIP on GitHub, then extract it) or clone it, and open its project-architect-3.0 folder:

• Windows: double-click install.cmd. A window opens, shows what it does, and waits for Enter at the end so you can read the result.
• WSL, Linux, macOS: run ./install.sh in a terminal.

It asks nothing. It finds or installs a Python 3.12, keeps its own clone of the package in ~/.claude/pa3-src (updates arrive through it), installs the runtime into ~/.claude/pa3/, creates the usage ledger in ~/.claude/usage-ledger/, and adds PA3's hooks and statusline to ~/.claude/settings.json after backing that file up.

2. Once per repository

Open the repository in Claude Code: until it is set up, PA3 shows one line at startup with the path filled in. Type it (it starts with !), then restart Claude Code: /exit, then claude. On Windows you can instead double-click setup-project.cmd and pick the folder, or run pa_install.py --project from a terminal. Each way makes one commit in the repository and never pushes. Set up a repository walks through all three with a recording, and lists what the setup writes.

3. Start

Open a bare claude in the repository. The pa-session agent, the router, works out where the project stands and takes it from there: generation planning for a new project, the next phase plan, or the task that was running.

Your plan's renewal day

The month figures on the statusline count from the day your plan renews, and PA3 never guesses it. The first session with an account whose day it does not know shows a line pointing to the Claude app's Settings → Billing page and the command that stores the day; in a router session the router asks you the question itself. Until then those figures show —. Signing in to another account asks again for that account.

Your plan picks the models

PA3 reads your plan from the Claude Code login at every session start and gives six agents the models of the matching preset: the hard expert, the four judges (critic, review, auditor, memory curator) and the plain design session. Every other agent runs the same on every plan. On Max 5x and Pro there is no hard expert, so the planner splits a task that would have needed it. To run one of the six on something else, set a ladder override in .claude/pa.json; it wins over the preset and survives updates.

Updating

When a new release is out, the next claude session applies it before any work and tells you in one message what changed. Set upgrade: ask in .claude/pa.json if you would rather be asked first. Your own edits to PA3's files survive an update: a file you never changed is replaced, a file you and PA3 both changed is merged, and an agent or skill that will not merge is staged for you to settle.

Uninstalling

Restore the newest ~/.claude/settings.json.bak-<date>, delete ~/.claude/pa3/ and ~/.claude/pa3-src/, and revert the install commit in each repository (or delete the installed paths and the memory link under ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/).