stepwise-builder

stepwise-builder

A Claude Code skill that builds any project incrementally — one verified step at a time.

Instead of generating everything at once, it creates a detailed plan, gets your approval, then executes each step through a subagent and runs a smoke test before moving on. Errors are caught early, at the exact step that caused them.

How it works

1. Plan — breaks your request into small, logical steps and saves them to PLAN.md
2. Approve — you review and adjust the plan before anything is written
3. Execute — each step runs in a dedicated subagent; smoke test must pass before the next step starts
4. Track — PLAN.md stays updated with the status of every step (pending → done / blocked)

Install

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/stepwise-builder ~/.claude/commands && \
  curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HEchternacht/stepwise-builder/main/skills/stepwise-builder/SKILL.md \
    -o ~/.claude/skills/stepwise-builder/SKILL.md && \
  curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HEchternacht/stepwise-builder/main/commands/step.md \
    -o ~/.claude/commands/step.md

Or manually:

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/HEchternacht/stepwise-builder

# Copy skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/stepwise-builder
cp stepwise-builder/skills/stepwise-builder/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/stepwise-builder/

# Copy /step command
mkdir -p ~/.claude/commands
cp stepwise-builder/commands/step.md ~/.claude/commands/

Usage

Start a new project

Just describe what you want to build:

build a REST API in Python with user auth and a products endpoint

Claude will invoke stepwise-builder, generate PLAN.md, and wait for your approval before writing any code.

Resume an existing plan

Use the /step command to pick up where you left off:

/step

This reads PLAN.md in the current project root and executes the next pending step.

File structure

~/.claude/
├── skills/
│   └── stepwise-builder/
│       └── SKILL.md       ← skill definition
└── commands/
    └── step.md            ← /step slash command

Requirements

• Claude Code

License

MIT