Setup

Start in the directory you want Ironclad to observe and initialize a catalog:

ic init

That creates .ironclad/ in the current directory.

.ironclad/
├── .gitignore
├── facts/
├── index.toml
└── snapshots/

The usual habit is:

• keep .ironclad/ in the project root
• keep the files you observe next to it in the same container directory

That keeps relative paths in fact files simple and predictable.

Using an explicit catalog

You can point commands at a specific catalog directory with --catalog-dir:

ic --catalog-dir /path/to/workspace/.ironclad inspect

Pass the .ironclad/ path itself, not its parent.