Claudikins Kernel

We call it Claudikins because "Draconian-AI-Supervisor" was taken.

A disciplined workflow engine run by a team of neurotic AI agents.

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Why?

You asked Claude for a bug fix. He refactored half your codebase.

You asked Claude for a feature. He placed a bunch of stubs that look a little bit real.

You asked Claude if you should drink that coffee you forgot about, now you're feeling sick and threw up on your keyboard, which cost too much just to hear nice click clack noises whilst you code, which actually isn't that great because it wakes your dog up at night, then you have to take him out in the cold to poop whilst you're still sick and well...okay, maybe that one was just me, but the point still stands!

claudikins-kernel applies SRE discipline to AI workflows. It enforces a strict 4-stage pipeline with gates between each step. You literally cannot skip verification. You cannot ship without the Cynic's approval.

Constraint is freedom. By preventing shortcuts, you get code that actually works.

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The Workflow

┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
│ /outline │────▶│ /execute │────▶│ /verify  │────▶│  /ship   │
└──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘
      │                │                │                │
      ▼                ▼                ▼                ▼
  taxonomy-        babyclaude      catastrophiser   git-perfectionist
  extremist        spec-reviewer       cynic
                   code-reviewer

Each arrow is a gate. Try to /ship without /verify passing? Blocked. Try to /execute without a plan? Blocked. The system enforces this - not guidelines, guardrails.

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Quick Start

# Prerequisites: jq (JSON processor)
# Windows: winget install jqlang.jq
# Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install jq
# macOS: brew install jq

# Add the Claudikins marketplace
/marketplace add elb-pr/claudikins-marketplace

# Install the plugin
/plugin install claudikins-kernel

Restart Claude Code. Then:

# Start your first disciplined session
/claudikins-kernel:outline "Add user authentication to the app"

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Meet the Team

These aren't generic "agents". They're your synthetic staff - each with a job and a personality.

Agent	Role	Personality
taxonomy-extremist	Researcher	The librarian. Categorises everything. Reads your codebase, external docs, the web - returns structured findings.
babyclaude	Implementer	The eager junior. Does exactly what you specify. One task, one branch, fresh context. No scope creep.
spec-reviewer	Compliance	The auditor. Did you do what you said you'd do? Mechanical check against acceptance criteria.
code-reviewer	Quality	The critic. Is it actually any good? Error handling? Edge cases? Naming?
catastrophiser	Verification	The QA lead who assumes everything will break. Runs your code, takes screenshots, curls your endpoints. Sees it working, doesn't trust tests alone.
cynic	Simplification	The senior engineer who hates complexity. If it can be done in 5 lines, won't let you use 10.
conflict-resolver	Merge Handler	The diplomat. When branches collide, proposes resolutions.
git-perfectionist	Documentation	The pedant. README not updated? Changelog wrong? Blocked until it's right.

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The Four Commands

/outline - "Let's figure out what we're building"

Iterative brainstorming until you have a solid plan.

1. Brain-jam - Back and forth with Claude. Pick from options, don't type essays.
2. Research - taxonomy-extremist agents dig through your codebase in parallel.
3. Approaches - 2-3 ways to solve it. Pros, cons, recommendation. You pick.
4. Draft - Plan written section by section. You approve each one.

Output: plan.md with a task table that /execute can parse.

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/execute - "Let's build it"

Execute the plan task by task with fresh agents and code review.

1. Batch checkpoint - "Batch 1/3: [task-1, task-2]. Ready?" You decide.
2. Per task - Creates branch, spawns fresh babyclaude, implements, commits.
3. Two-stage review - spec-reviewer checks compliance, code-reviewer checks quality.
4. Merge decision - You choose: merge all, merge some, or keep branches.

Key feature: Each babyclaude gets fresh context. No pollution between tasks.

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/verify - "Does it actually work?"

Claude must see the code working. Not trust. Verify.

1. Automated checks - Tests, lint, type check.
2. Output verification - catastrophiser runs your code:
   • Web app? Starts server, takes screenshots.
   • API? Curls endpoints, checks responses.
   • CLI? Runs commands, verifies output.
3. Polish pass - cynic looks for unnecessary complexity. Changes one thing at a time, tests after each.
4. Human checkpoint - Comprehensive report. You decide: ready to ship?

Output: verify-state.json with unlock_ship: true if approved. Plus file hashes so /ship can detect tampering.

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/ship - "Send it"

Merge to main with proper docs and PR.

1. Gate check - Won't run unless verify passed AND code hasn't changed.
2. Commit strategy - Squash or preserve? Message drafted, you approve.
3. Documentation - git-perfectionist updates README, CHANGELOG, version. Section by section.
4. PR creation - Draft, approve, create via gh CLI.
5. Merge - Wait for CI if you want. Merge. Cleanup branches.

Output: Code on main. PR merged. Done properly.

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The Safety Net

Protection	What it does
Cross-command gates	Can't skip steps. Execute needs plan. Ship needs verify.
State files	Each command writes to .claude/. Resume if context dies.
File locking	flock prevents race conditions on state writes.
Code integrity	SHA256 hashes ensure shipped code = verified code.
Session management	Stale session (4+ hours)? Warns you research might be outdated.
Human checkpoints	Nothing auto-proceeds. You approve every phase.

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Architecture

Industrial-grade patterns adapted for AI workflows.

Distributed Systems Pattern	Claude Code Adaptation
Circuit breakers	Stuck agent detection
Distributed tracing	Execution spans
Load shedding	Batch size limits
Coordinated checkpoints	Batch-boundary saves
Deadline propagation	Task time budgets
Exponential backoff	Retry with jitter

Same principles, different scale. Reliability through structure - not speed through parallelism.

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Requirements

System

• jq - Used by hook scripts for JSON processing

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install jq

# macOS
brew install jq

# Windows
winget install jqlang.jq

Recommended Plugins

Plugin	Purpose
claudikins-tool-executor	MCP access for research and verification
claudikins-automatic-context-manager	Context monitoring at 60%

Optional Plugins

Plugin	Purpose
claudikins-klaus	Escalation when truly stuck

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Status

v1.2.0 - Full Release - Regularly Maintained.

View the marketplace | Changelog

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License

MIT

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We call it Claudikins because "Draconian-AI-Supervisor" was taken.