# Getting Started

## What is Fora?

Fora is an infrastructure and configuration management tool inspired by [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com) and [pyinfra](https://pyinfra.com). Yet, it implements a drastically different approach to inventory management (and some other aspects), when compared to these well-known tools. See [how it differs](/fora/outlining-the-differences.md#how-is-fora-different-from-existing-tools) for more details.

## Installation & Quickstart

You can install Fora with pip:

```bash
pip install fora
```

Afterwards, you can use it to write scripts which will be used to run operations or commands on a remote host.

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="deploy.py" %}

```python
from fora.operations import files, system

files.directory(
    name="Create a temporary directory",
    path="/tmp/hello")

system.package(
    name="Install neovim",
    package="neovim")
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

These scripts are executed against an inventory, or a specific remote host (usually via SSH).

```bash
fora root@example.com deploy.py
```

To start with your own (more complex) deploy, you can have Fora create a scaffolding in an empty directory. There are [different scaffoldings](/fora/usage/introduction.md#deploy-structure) available for different use-cases.

```bash
fora --init minimal
```

Fora can do a lot more than this, which is explained in the [Introduction](/fora/usage/introduction.md) section. If you are interested in how Fora is different from existing tools, have a look at [Outlining the differences](/fora/outlining-the-differences.md).


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://oddlama.gitbook.io/fora/readme.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.