Introduction

Introduction to Claude Kit

Claude Kit is a Claude Code plugin that adds a verification-first engineering workflow — every claim has evidence, every step has a checkpoint, every skill has a Rationalizations table that names the excuses an engineer makes to skip discipline. Built for senior ICs and tech leads who already know how to ship and want a workflow that keeps the bar high without ceremony.

What is Claude Kit?

A Claude Code plugin you install via the marketplace:

• 15 Skills — A 5-phase spine (Investigate → Design → Implement → Verify → Ship) plus 1 setup skill. All user-invocable as /claudekit:<name>. Each skill has 8 required sections including a Rationalizations table and Evidence Requirements.
• 8 Agents — Specialist subagents, one dispatcher each. No agent-bloat.
• 5 Output Styles — Native Claude Code output styles shipped with the plugin (Brainstorm, Deep Research, Implementation, Review, Token Efficient). Switch via /config.
• Setup Wizard — /claudekit:init scaffolds rules, modes, hooks, and MCP servers into your project.

Skills activate automatically based on keywords in your conversation, or invoke directly by name.

Why Claude Kit?

The problem with raw Claude Code workflows

Problem	Symptom
Self-reported “done"	"Tests pass — trust me” claims that don’t hold up
Symptom patches	Bugs fixed at the line where the error appeared, not at the cause
Silent skip-it discipline	Steps elided when the engineer thinks they “see the problem”
Vague plans	”Implement the X” tasks that hide three sub-decisions nobody made

What Claude Kit adds

1. Rationalizations tables — Every skill names the excuses someone makes to skip a step (“I see the problem, let me just patch it”) with rebuttals. The skill refuses to be skipped silently.
2. Evidence Requirements — Every checkpoint produces an artifact you could paste into a code review. “It seems right” is failure.
3. Pre-completion gates — verification-gate runs before any “done” claim. Tests run. Negative path checked. Non-IDE environment exercised. Original ask cross-checked.
4. Plan-review pipeline — Two parallel reviewers (architecture + experience) score 5 sub-dimensions each, consolidate into one fix gate. Catches structural issues before code.
5. No founder voice — No “ambitious vision,” no “10x outcomes,” no “delight.” Engineering analogies, real file paths, real commands.

How skills work

Skills trigger automatically based on keywords, or you can invoke them directly:

You: "Why is this endpoint returning 500s?"
     → triggers: investigate-root-cause

You: "How does the auth flow work?"
     → triggers: map-codebase

You: "Plan the migration to PostgreSQL"
     → triggers: shape-spec, then write-plan, then plan-review

You: "Is this PR ready to merge?"
     → triggers: verification-gate, then code-review-loop

Or invoke directly: /claudekit:investigate-root-cause, /claudekit:plan-review, /claudekit:verification-gate.

Who is Claude Kit for?

• Senior ICs who want a workflow that respects how they already think — not founder-flavored coaching, not “magical AI” framing.
• Tech leads running plan reviews, code reviews, and engineering rigor across teams. Plan-review is the headline workflow.
• Anyone using Claude Code who’s tired of self-reported “done” claims and wants a discipline that produces evidence.

What Claude Kit isn’t for

• Pure exploratory work where the goal is learning, not shipping.
• One-line typo fixes that don’t need a workflow.
• Strategy / scope / “is this worth building” questions — that’s a different lane.

Next steps

1. Install Claude Kit — Install the plugin from the marketplace.
2. Configuration — Run /claudekit:init to scaffold rules, modes, hooks, and MCP servers.
3. Skills Reference — Browse the 16 skills.
4. Agents Reference — Browse the 8 specialist agents.