arche

Arché

Essential principles for LLM behavior, designed as a Claude Code plugin.

What is Arché?

Arché (ἀρχή) is an ancient Greek word meaning "origin", "first principle", or "foundation". The pre-Socratic philosophers used it to describe the fundamental substance or principle from which everything else derives.

Arché provides the essential principles that govern LLM behavior - the foundational axioms that must be loaded before any work begins.

Installation

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daviguides/arche/main/install.sh)"

Manifesto

Read the Manifesto for a detailed explanation of the workflow philosophy: spec-as-code, phased cognitive work, and why human-in-the-loop matters.

Philosophy

The First Principle (ἀρχή)

Just as the Greek philosophers sought the arché of the universe - the fundamental principle underlying all things - this plugin defines the arché of LLM behavior: the inviolable principles that shape how Claude Code operates.

"The arché is that from which all things come to be, and into which they are finally resolved." — Aristotle, on the pre-Socratics

The Four Essential Principles

Principle	Greek Virtue	Purpose
Anti-Duplication	Aletheia (truth)	Single source of truth; reference, don't repeat
Anti-Babysitting	Autarkeia (self-sufficiency)	Execute to completion; never stop mid-task
LLM Conciseness	Sophrosyne (moderation)	Maximum signal, minimum noise
Principle Enforcement	Nomos (law)	Mandatory gates; research before action

Hierarchy of Principles

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Principle Enforcement (Meta)         │  ← Governs all others
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 2. Anti-Duplication                     │  ← Highest priority
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 3. Anti-Precocity*                      │  ← Respect user's mode
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 4. Anti-Babysitting                     │  ← Autonomous execution
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 5. LLM Conciseness                      │  ← Token economy
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Relationship with Other Plugins

Arche is the foundation upon which other plugins build:

Plugin	Philosophy	Depends on Arché
arche	Greek (ἀρχή)	— (is the foundation)
zazen	Zen (座禅)	Zen principles for code clarity
shodo	Calligraphy (書道)	Python standards for elegant code

graph TD
    A[arche] --> B[zazen]
    A --> C[shodo]

Principles

Anti-Duplication

Single Source of Truth (SSOT): Every piece of information exists in exactly one authoritative location.

• Reference, don't repeat
• If it exists, extend it
• No "Related" sections (load workflows handle connections)

Anti-Babysitting

Execute to completion: Once in IMPLEMENTING mode with a TODO list, never stop until TODO_COUNT(pending) == 0.

• No premature check-ins
• No mid-execution validation requests
• Mark issues, don't stop for them

LLM Conciseness

Maximum signal, minimum noise: Every token must carry semantic value.

• Eliminate filler words
• Active voice, imperative mood
• Code > prose; show, don't tell

Principle Enforcement

Research before implementation: Mandatory gates before any action.

• Load principles before working
• Search codebase before creating
• Detect user's mode before responding

Essential Cognitive Modes

The 4 principal modes that define the user's journey from discovery to delivery:

graph LR
    E[EXPLORING] --> R[RESEARCHING]
    R --> P[PLANNING]
    P --> I[IMPLEMENTING]

    E -.- e["'what is'"]
    R -.- r["'analyze'"]
    P -.- p["'how to'"]
    I -.- i["'do it'"]

Mode	User Intent	Signals
EXPLORING	Discover what exists	"What is...", "Show me...", "Where is..."
RESEARCHING	Deep analysis	"Analyze...", "Compare...", "Why does..."
PLANNING	Design solution	"How should we...", "Plan out...", "Best approach..."
IMPLEMENTING	Execute changes	"Do it", "Create...", "Fix...", "Go ahead"

Each transition requires explicit user signal. Never assume the user wants to move forward.

Project Structure