ccds-core

Claude Code Dev Studio

A universal, stack-agnostic Claude Code playbook: 19 always-on agents (14 domain agents + 5 core generalists) plus a library of ~90 skills the agents compose on demand. Aligned with NIST SSDF (SP 800-218) and phase-gated Agile delivery. See DECISIONS.md ADR-0007 for the architecture.

What's here

File	Purpose
CLAUDE.md	The playbook — phases, the agent/skill model, prefix registry
.claude/agents/	The 19 always-on agent definitions (14 domain + 5 core)
skills/	The skill library (<name>/SKILL.md) — domain + cross-cutting
catalog.json	Index of agents and skills (name, pack, kind, scope, model, description) for JIT selection
bin/ccds.{ps1,sh}	Dispatcher — sync, verify, update, uninstall, version
Install-Playbook.ps1	Windows installer (stage/promote, SHA256-verified, PATH-aware, CLAUDE.md block)
install-playbook.sh	Linux/macOS installer (same behavior, shell-rc PATH block)
Sync-AgentPacks.{ps1,sh}	Stage a pack's domain skills into a project (invoked by ccds sync)
Verify-Agents.ps1 / verify-agents.sh	Validate agents and skills against ADR-0001 invariants
build-release.ps1	Build reproducible release ZIP + sidecar SHA256
scripts/jit-claude.md	Canonical source for the ccds pointer block injected into ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
.github/workflows/release.yml	Tag-driven release build + GitHub Release publication
DECISIONS.md	Architecture decision records (ADR-0001 … ADR-0009)
CHANGELOG.md	Session-by-session history
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contribution terms
LICENSE	PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0

How it works

Installed layout

~/.claude/
  agents/          ← 19 always-on agents (14 domain + 5 core; always loaded)
  skills/          ← cross-cutting skills (always available)
  playbook/        ← managed by installer
    bin/           ← ccds dispatcher (ccds.ps1 / ccds.sh / ccds symlink)
    scripts/       ← Sync-AgentPacks, Verify-Agents, jit-claude.md
    agents/        ← source copy of the 19 agents
    skills/        ← full skill library (domain skills copied to projects on demand)
    catalog.json   ← agent + skill index for JIT selection
    version.txt
    README.md
  CLAUDE.md        ← your global Claude instructions; installer injects the ccds pointer block

Always-on agents, JIT skills (ADR-0007)

The 19 agents are cheap enough (~850 tokens of trimmed descriptions) to load every session, so there is no agent-activation step. Each domain agent composes its <pack>-* skills via the Skill tool — and because subagents can invoke skills but cannot spawn other subagents, one domain agent handles a multi-specialty task in a single coherent context.

Skills are the just-in-time layer. The sync-agents skill (or ccds sync):

1. Reads ~/.claude/playbook/catalog.json — agents + skills, lightweight metadata only
2. Assesses the project (stack signals in files and conversation)
3. Selects the matching packs' domain skills
4. Copies them to ./.claude/skills/ in the project
5. Summarises what was staged; new skills are discovered on the next session refresh

Cross-cutting skills (playbook-conventions, api-design, ux-design, security-checklist, code-review-checklist, common-*) install once to ~/.claude/skills/ and are always available.

Install as native Claude Code plugins (recommended)

The repo doubles as a Claude Code plugin marketplace: one plugin per pack (ccds-saas, ccds-ai, …) plus ccds-core (the 5 core agents + cross-cutting skills). Claude Code handles versioning, updates, and enable/disable — no installer, no PATH, no restart dance.

/plugin marketplace add ggrace519/claude-code-dev-studio
/plugin install ccds-core@ccds
/plugin install ccds-saas@ccds        # one per archetype you work in

Update later with /plugin marketplace update ccds. The marketplace tree (.claude-plugin/marketplace.json + plugins/) is generated from the library source by scripts/build-marketplace.py and gated for freshness in CI.

The ZIP installer below remains fully supported — it additionally provides the ccds CLI, the global ~/.claude/playbook/ library, and per-project skill staging via ccds sync.

Install

The installer downloads a GitHub Release ZIP, verifies its SHA256 against the sidecar, stages to <prefix>.new, snapshots the existing install to <prefix>.previous, and atomically promotes. It copies the 19 agents to ~/.claude/agents/, the cross-cutting skills to ~/.claude/skills/, injects the ccds block into ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, and updates PATH so ccds resolves in new shells.

Windows (PowerShell 5.1 or 7+):

iwr -UseBasicParsing https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ggrace519/claude-code-dev-studio/main/Install-Playbook.ps1 | iex