Compound Engineering Core

Compound Engineering Core Plugin

Private plugin for shared compound engineering workflows.

Includes

• Workflow commands:
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:brainstorm
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:research
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:deepen-plan
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:plan
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:plan-loop
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:debug
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:explain
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:frontend-validate
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:work
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:compound
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:epic-delta-loop
  • compound-engineering-core:workflows:pr-review
• Review and research agents for teammate/research workflows
• Legacy compatibility Codex agent shims for older repos

Notes

• Use plugin-prefixed command names to guarantee you are invoking the shared plugin implementation.
• Agent teams are opt-in per command run via teams=on.
• brainstorm, debug, and explain provide non-coding workflows for discovery, diagnosis, and decision traceability.
• brainstorm supports freshness-aware research controls: research=auto|on|off, research_depth=quick|standard|deep, and as_of=YYYY-MM-DD.
• research provides deep-research style investigation with iterative PM Q&A loops and dated evidence capture.
• deepen-plan upgrades an existing plan through targeted research passes and confidence-tracked PM feedback loops.
• External Codex gate expects a configured codex-xhigh MCP server.
• Codex plan and PR passes are invoked directly by the current Claude agent; dedicated Codex-only Claude sub-agents are no longer the default path.
• Frontend browser validation uses gstack headless Chromium. Install gstack skill at ~/.claude/skills/gstack/ and run ./setup.
• Planning enforces an Epic PR Ladder with per-PR size/test expectations.
• PR review enforces teammate + Codex correctness + Codex edge-case + test/CI gates for code PRs.
• frontend-validate provides the browser-validation gate using gstack persistent headless Chromium.
• workflows:work auto-runs frontend-validate when a batch touches qualifying frontend/browser validation changes.
• workflows:pr-review fails closed for qualifying PRs when current-SHA frontend validation evidence is missing, stale, or failed.
• The two Codex PR passes are both required on the current SHA and are run directly by the current Claude agent by default.
• PR review requires SHA authorization via approve_sha=<current-head-sha> (auto-supplied when invoked from workflows:work).
• workflows:work auto-runs/re-runs PR review after each pushed SHA on the active PR.
• workflows:work enforces a post-merge CI/CD confirmation gate on target-branch SHA before continuing to the next slice/closeout.
• workflows:work auto-runs post-merge workflows:compound after CI/CD is green, and records created/updated/skipped evidence in the execution tracker.
• Non-blockers must be triaged (implement_now|defer|reject) and cannot be silently ignored.
• Default triage artifact is existing gate evidence + execution tracker (no extra todo-file system required).
• Multi-reviewer consensus non-blockers are escalation-candidates and default to promotion unless counterevidence + PM signoff are captured.

Meta-governance

Changes to this plugin (workflow commands, agent definitions, review policies) are themselves subject to the same compound engineering workflow:

1. Branch + PR: All changes must go through a feature branch and pull request in the plugin repository, never committed directly.
2. PR review: Plugin changes are classified as code_pr (they affect execution, review, and trust boundaries) and must pass the same teammate + Codex review gates.
3. Compound capture: Non-trivial changes should produce a docs/solutions/ entry in the consuming repository if the change was motivated by a process failure.

The methodology must enforce itself. If an agent skips these gates for "meta" changes, that is a process violation equivalent to skipping them for application code.