forge

An AI-assisted knowledge and artifact pipeline for engineering teams — traceable from source document to shipped user story.

forge is an AI plugin for Claude Code and VS Code that turns a plain git repository into a structured knowledge base and artifact generation pipeline. Teams register work items, drop source documents (specs, meeting notes, PDFs, emails) into a folder, and the plugin ingests them into cross-linked wiki pages — then generates software engineering artifacts that build progressively on each other: briefs, quality attributes & constraints, ADRs, feature lists, diagrams, and user stories.

Every artifact traces back to a source document. Every decision can be explained.

The work item hierarchy mirrors what teams already use in Jira, Azure DevOps, and SAFe — Strategic (Themes, Initiatives), Product (Epics, Features), and Tactical (User Stories, Tasks, Bugs). Artifacts generated at the strategic level automatically propagate as constraints into product-level work; product artifacts flow into tactical ones. The knowledge travels with the hierarchy.

New to forge? Start with the Quick Start.

How it works

flowchart LR
    A([Team]) -->|/focus| B[Register<br/>work item]
    B --> C[(forge.yaml<br/>+ .env)]
    C --> D[Drop files<br/>into input/]
    D -->|/ingest| E[Knowledge<br/>wiki]
    E -->|/query| F([Answer<br/>with citations])
    E -->|/lint| G([Health<br/>check])
    E -->|/draft| H([Engineering<br/>artifact])

1. Register a work item — creates the folder structure and tracks the active item in .env.
   • See How To: Create Work Items for details on the work item hierarchy and best practices.
2. Drop source files into input/ (Markdown, PDF, plain text, images).
   • See How To: Ingest a Source for a walkthrough of the ingestion process and how to guide the AI's understanding.
3. Query — ask questions; every answer cites a wiki page, which traces back to a source file.
   • See How To: Answer Questions for tips on crafting effective queries and interpreting citations.
4. Generate artifacts — produce briefs, quality attributes & constraints, ADRs, feature lists, feature details, diagrams, and user stories directly from the wiki. Each artifact enriches the next: the Epic's feature-list feeds the Feature's feature-detail, which feeds individual user-story files at Tactical level.
   • See How To: Generate Artifacts for a step-by-step guide to generating each artifact type and how they build on each other.
5. Lint — periodic health check that finds orphan pages, broken links, contradictions, and stale content.

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Guides

Guide	Description
Quick Start	End-to-end case walkthrough from Strategic Initiative to Tactical user stories
How To: Create Work Items	Create and select work items; understanding the hierarchy
How To: Create and Maintain a Wiki	Ingest sources, query the wiki, and run health checks
How To: Generate Artifacts	Generate briefs, requirements, ADRs, diagrams, and user stories
Research & Documentation	Deep-dive reference for every command, skill, and concept

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References