ADLC — Agentic Development Lifecycle Toolkit
A workspace of zero-dependency, gate-shaped Node.js CLIs for running software
development the way frontier models actually behave — not the way humans do.
The SDLC is 60 years of defenses against human failure modes (forgetfulness, ego,
fatigue). Models have a different flaw profile: premature satisfaction, sycophancy,
context rot, confident hallucination, reward hacking. The Agentic Development
Lifecycle (ADLC) redesigns every phase, gate, and loop around those flaws. Read the
full thesis in ADLC.md.
Why this exists
Every phase, gate, and loop in this lifecycle must trace to a specific model failure
mode it defends against, or a specific model property it exploits. If it traces to a
human failure mode instead, cut it.
Each tool is a small CLI that enforces one machine-checkable gate. They share a runtime
convention (.adlc/ for tickets, ledgers, and gate evidence) and a common contract
(see CONVENTIONS.md) so 21 independently built tools feel like one
product.
Install
Each package publishes independently under the @adlc npm scope. Install only what you
need, or run on demand with npx:
# one tool, global
npm install -g @adlc/spec-lint
# or run without installing
npx @adlc/spec-lint <spec.md>
# or install the whole suite behind one `adlc <tool>` command
npm install -g @adlc/cli
adlc spec-lint <spec.md>
The toolkit
See docs/package-reference.md for binaries, command forms,
and per-package detail, and docs/toolkit.md for how the packages fit
the ADLC flow.
Use it in Claude Code
This repo is also a Claude Code plugin — it makes the whole lifecycle usable from
inside the editor (phase-routing skill, ticket/distill/maintain commands, a
prosecutor subagent, and hooks that fire the gates automatically), with no API
keys (Claude is the model via --prompt-only):
npm install -g @adlc/cli
/plugin marketplace add voodootikigod/adlc
/plugin install adlc@adlc
/adlc-init
See docs/claude-code.md for the full adoption guide.
Design principles
Every tool follows the same contract (CONVENTIONS.md):
- Zero runtime dependencies — Node 18+ built-ins and
@adlc/core only.
--prompt-only on every LLM-backed tool — print the exact prompt and exit, so the
tool is usable with zero API keys (paste into any harness).--json on every tool — machine-readable output for orchestrators.- Exit codes are the gate:
0 = gate passes · 1 = operational error · 2 = gate fails.
- Never mutate the working tree without a flag — writers default to dry-run.
- Tests run offline — no network, no API keys, no trace left behind.
Quick start (from source)
git clone https://github.com/voodootikigod/adlc.git
cd adlc
npm install
npm test
Requires Node.js 18 or newer.
Documentation
- ADLC.md — the full lifecycle thesis and flaw inventory.
- docs/claude-code.md — adopt the ADLC inside Claude Code (plugin).
- docs/ — toolkit guide, package reference, and the narrative essays.
- CONVENTIONS.md — the contract every package follows.
Contributing
