Adopt DriftGuard — paths by starting point

You do not need the full control plane on day one. Pick the path that matches where your team is today — each links to the smallest doc set to reach value.

Not sure yet? Read why contract drift matters or run a local diff in five minutes via local-first setup.

Pick your path

Starting point	Best path	Time to first signal
New to contract drift	From zero	~5 min local, optional hosted
Manual JSON / schema diff	From manual JSON diff	Same day CI hook
CI-only, no hosted watches	From CI-only checks	Preview on next PR
Many MCP servers in `mcp.json`	From MCP sprawl	Preview scan + trial watch
Production agents already live	Watch-first hosted	First snapshot on trial
Retry spirals / loop detection	FuseGuard-first	Local fuse + optional cloud trips
Platform / multi-agent fleet	Full control plane	Bindings + preflight + policies

From zero

New to contract drift detection — prove value before signup.

Install OSS client
Clone + build — MCP server and CLI.
First diff
compare_json or CLI diff — no API key.
MCP in IDE
Connect MCP in Cursor.
Optional CI
GitHub Actions preview job.
Optional hosted watch
Free trial — one Pro watch.

From manual JSON diff

Already comparing snapshots by hand or with generic diff tools.

Pin baselines in repo
Store golden JSON next to fixtures.
Replace ad-hoc compare
Use unified CLI diff semantics.
Classify severity
Breaking vs warning.
Pre-commit or CI
Coverage or diff gate.
Add watches for prod APIs
First watch on vendors you do not own.

From CI-only checks

Pipeline already fails on schema changes; no continuous monitoring yet.

Keep hook tier
Local driftguard diff on fixtures (OSS).
Non-blocking preview
drift-coverage-preview on PRs — CI setup wizard.
Trial watch
/start for highest-risk endpoint.
Enforce when clean
Switch to drift-coverage with API key.
IDE agent
Hosted MCP tools for fleet status.

From MCP sprawl

Many MCP servers configured; unclear what is monitored.

Offline preview
parse_mcp_config — getting started §4.
CI preview scan
GitHub Action with scan-paths for mcp.json.
Import with catalog
Hosted suggest_watches after API key — /activate.
Enforce coverage
assert_coverage / enforce action.
Gate packages
MockDrift, ToolChange — gate ladder (OSS).

Watch-first hosted

Skip local tooling — start with continuous monitoring on one critical vendor or MCP server.

Trial signup
Paste vendor URL → suggested watch.
Alerts
Slack or webhook — breaking-only to start — Alerts.
API key for automation
API keys + MCP hosted tools.
Expand fleet
Console fleet + CI coverage.

FuseGuard-first

Agents already in production; priority is stopping retry spirals and loop damage.

Local loop fuse
FuseGuard how-to — wrap agent tool calls.
Trip ingest
Cloud trip log when on Team plan — same guide.
Correlate with drift
Add watches on tools FuseGuard calls — MCP agents.
Pre-run check
Block runs when drift_status is drifted.

Full control plane

Multi-agent fleet, policies, orchestrator gates, and remediation loop.

Fleet watches + status plane
Console + portfolio API.
Agent bindings
Map agents to watches and policies (console Agents).
Preflight + runtime
Preflight + FuseGuard + runtime webhooks.
Remediation
SchemaSync PRs, MockDrift CI gates — SchemaSync.
Needs Review ops
Console attention feed — ack before unblock.

Common blockers

Issue	Fix
Trial gate fails on second dependency	Trial allows one watch — upgrade on pricing or stay on CI preview.
Hosted MCP tools fail	Set `DRIFTGUARD_API_KEY` — see authentication.
Stdio MCP servers not in suggest list	No HTTPS URL — use a hosted MCP watch URL or add a manual watch.
Too many breaking diffs	Review severity rules; vendor may ship additive changes as breaking in strict mode.

OSS deep dive

The open-source repo maintains a longer migrate guide with CLI troubleshooting tables: docs/migrate/README.md.