🍞 Loaf

"Why have just a slice when you can get the whole loaf?"

Loaf is an opinionated agentic framework that gives AI coding assistants structured knowledge, enforced tool boundaries, and a complete pipeline from idea to implementation to learning. Write your skills once, deploy to Claude Code, OpenCode, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini.

Why Loaf?

Portable knowledge — 33 skills (31 active, 2 deprecated) covering workflows, engineering standards, and language expertise. Build once, deploy to five AI coding tools without rewriting anything.

Session journal model — Session files in .agents/sessions/ capture state and decisions with frontmatter tracking. Handoff artifacts live separately in .agents/handoffs/. Work survives context loss, compaction, and /clear.

Spec-first pipeline — Ideas are shaped into bounded specs before any code is written. Every change flows: Idea → Spec → Tasks → Code → Learnings. Nothing gets lost.

Profile-based agents — Three functional profiles defined by tool access, not job titles. A Smith with python-development skills becomes a backend engineer; the same Smith with infrastructure-management becomes a DevOps engineer. Skills determine what an agent knows; the profile determines what it can touch.

Session continuity — Pick up exactly where you left off with full traceability. Session journals capture state and decisions in .agents/sessions/; explicit transfer packets live in .agents/handoffs/ until housekeeping deletes them after deprecation.

Hooks as quality gates — Two hook types: enforcement hooks (pre-commit secrets scanning, pre-push linting) block bad commits automatically; skill instruction hooks inject context at tool invocation time. Language-aware and automatic.

The Pipeline

Loaf's commands form a three-phase workflow that mirrors how good software gets built:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       PHASE 1: SHAPE                        │
│                                                             │
│         /idea  →  /brainstorm  →  /shape  →  SPEC          │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       PHASE 2: BUILD                        │
│                                                             │
│           /breakdown  →  /implement  →  /release            │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       PHASE 3: LEARN                        │
│                                                             │
│           /housekeeping  →  /reflect  →  /wrap              │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Phase 1: Shape

Transform raw ideas into implementable specs with clear boundaries.

Command	What It Does
/idea	Quick capture of rough ideas into .agents/ideas/
/brainstorm	Deep exploration of a problem space
/shape	Rigorous shaping into bounded spec (what's IN and OUT)
/strategy	Discover and document strategic direction

Phase 2: Build

Decompose specs into atomic tasks and execute with specialized agents.

Command	What It Does
/breakdown	Split spec into agent-sized atomic tasks
/implement	Execute tasks with orchestrated agent delegation
/release (/ship)	Orchestrate the merge ritual: pre-flight, docs check, version bump, squash merge, cleanup

Phase 3: Learn

Integrate outcomes into strategic knowledge.

Command	What It Does
/housekeeping	Review completed sessions, archive or delete lifecycle-complete artifacts
/reflect	Integrate learnings into strategic documents
/handoff	Package context for another agent, branch, task, or future session
/wrap	Session summary: what shipped, what's pending, what's next

Pipeline Commands

CLI commands that support the workflow pipeline:

Command	What It Does
loaf build	Build all targets after modifying skills/agents
loaf install	Install to detected AI tools
loaf check	Run enforcement hooks manually
loaf project	Manage durable project identity (show, rename, move)
loaf task	Manage project tasks (list, show, update, archive)
loaf spec	Manage spec lifecycle
loaf kb	Knowledge base management
loaf session	Session journal management (list, start, end, log)
loaf session enrich	Enrich session journal from JSONL conversation logs
loaf session housekeeping	Review and archive agent artifacts
loaf release / loaf ship	Orchestrate release ritual

Profiles

Loaf uses four functional profiles defined by mechanically enforced tool boundaries — not role titles, not domain labels. What an agent can do is fixed by its profile. What it knows comes from skills loaded at spawn time.

Profile	Role	Tool Access	What It Does
Smith	Implementer	Full write	Forges code, tests, config, and docs. Speciality determined by skills.
Sentinel	Reviewer	Read-only	Watches, guards, and verifies. Cannot modify what it reviews — by design.
Ranger	Researcher	Read + web	Scouts far, gathers intelligence, reports structured findings.
Librarian	Librarian	Read + Edit (.agents/)	Tends session lifecycle, state, and wrap summaries. Does not forge code or scout.

The main session is the Warden — it coordinates and delegates but never implements directly. See SOUL.md for the full fellowship identity.

Skills

Workflow

Skills you invoke directly to drive work forward.

Skill	Activates When
shape	Shaping ideas into bounded specs
breakdown	Decomposing specs into atomic tasks
implement	Starting task or spec implementation
release	Orchestrating the release ritual (version bump, squash merge)
brainstorm	Deep exploration of a problem space
research	Investigating questions, comparing options
strategy	Discovering or updating strategic direction
architecture	Creating Architecture Decision Records
idea	Quick capture of ideas for later evaluation
triage	Review and process intake queue (sparks + raw ideas)
reflect	Integrating learnings into strategic docs
housekeeping	Reviewing and archiving agent artifacts
handoff	Creating disposable transfer packets in .agents/handoffs/
bootstrap	Bootstrapping new or existing projects
wrap	End-of-session summary: shipped, pending, next

Orchestration & Knowledge

Background skills that activate automatically during agent coordination and project management.

Skill	Activates When
orchestration	Managing sessions, delegating agents, Linear integration
council	Multi-perspective deliberation during complex decisions
knowledge-base	Managing project knowledge files
cli-reference	Looking up which CLI command to use

Engineering Standards

Background knowledge that activates automatically to enforce quality.

Skill	Activates When
foundations	Writing code — style, naming, TDD, verification, code review
git-workflow	Branching, commits, PRs, squash merges
debugging	Diagnosing failures, tracking hypotheses, flaky tests
security-compliance	Threat modeling, secrets management, compliance checks
documentation-standards	ADRs, API docs, changelogs, Mermaid diagrams

Language & Domain

Domain expertise that loads based on project context.

Skill	Activates When
typescript-development	TypeScript, React, Next.js, Tailwind, Vitest
python-development	FastAPI, Pydantic, pytest, async patterns
ruby-development	Rails 8, Hotwire, Minitest
go-development	Go services, concurrency, testing
interface-design	UI/UX, accessibility (WCAG 2.1), design systems
database-design	Schema design, migrations, query optimization
infrastructure-management	Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Terraform
power-systems-modeling	Thermal rating models, conductor physics

Multi-Target Support

Build once, deploy everywhere. Skills are the universal layer; profiles and hooks adapt per target.

Target	Profiles	Skills	Hooks	Status
Claude Code	✓	✓	✓	Primary
OpenCode	✓	✓	✓	Full support
Cursor	✓	✓	✓	Full support
Codex	—	✓	✓	Skills + hooks
Gemini	—	✓	—	Skills only

Note: council-session skill renamed to council for consistency. Removed skills: resume-session, reference-session.

Getting Started

Homebrew

brew tap levifig/tap
brew install loaf

Homebrew installs the native loaf binary plus Loaf's packaged content under the tap-managed prefix. Use brew upgrade loaf after releases.

Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add levifig/loaf

Updates happen automatically via plugin marketplace. Commands are scoped under loaf: (e.g., /loaf:implement).

OpenCode, Cursor, Codex, Gemini

npx github:levifig/loaf install

Detects installed tools, lets you select targets, and installs pre-built distributions. Re-run with --upgrade to update.

Upgrading Existing Projects

Projects created with the older TypeScript runtime can keep using their existing .agents/ Markdown files after installing the native Go runtime. If no SQLite database exists yet, Loaf runs supported task, spec, report, session, and housekeeping commands in markdown-only compatibility mode.

Use this sequence when you are ready to adopt SQLite-backed state:

loaf state status
loaf migrate markdown --dry-run
loaf migrate markdown --apply
loaf state status

The dry run counts importable artifacts and skipped files without creating a database. The apply step imports .agents/ Markdown into the XDG data-home SQLite database without rewriting the source Markdown files. Loaf uses one global SQLite file and partitions rows by stable project ID, so multiple projects share the same database path while project queries stay isolated. Project IDs are not bound to the checkout path or friendly name; use loaf project rename <name> for display names and loaf project move --from <old-path> after moving a checkout. Newer graph-oriented commands such as loaf idea, loaf spark, loaf tag, loaf bundle, and loaf link require initialized SQLite state; run loaf state init for a fresh project or loaf migrate markdown --apply for an existing Markdown project.

Recovering SQLite State From A Backup

Loaf backups are full SQLite database copies stored outside the repository. There is not yet a loaf state restore command, so restore is an explicit manual procedure:

loaf state backup verify /path/to/backup.sqlite
DB="$(loaf state path)"
cp "$DB" "$DB.before-restore"
cp /path/to/backup.sqlite "$DB"
loaf state doctor
loaf state status

Only copy a backup after loaf state backup verify reports verified: true, integrity: ok, foreign keys: ok, and the expected project identities. Preserve the current global database first so a bad restore can be reversed. For agentic restore flows, loaf state backup verify --json includes restore_database_path, restore_preserve_path, and restore_validation_commands for the current checkout. After copying the backup into $XDG_DATA_HOME/loaf/loaf.sqlite, run loaf state doctor and loaf state status from the affected checkout before continuing work.

Install locations:

Target	Location
OpenCode	~/.config/opencode/ or ~/.opencode/
Cursor	~/.cursor/
Codex	$CODEX_HOME/skills/ or ~/.codex/skills/
Gemini	~/.gemini/skills/

Integrations

Claude Code only.

Recommended MCP Servers: Linear (issue tracking). Optional: Serena (semantic editing for large codebases — most code intelligence is now built into Claude Code's native LSP). Not bundled — loaf install will detect and recommend missing MCPs.

LSP Servers: gopls, pyright, typescript-language-server, solargraph

Development

git clone https://github.com/levifig/loaf.git
cd loaf
npm install
npm run build

See AGENTS.md for development guidelines.

npm run typecheck    # Type check
npm run test         # Run tests
loaf build           # Build all targets (after initial npm run build)
loaf install --to all  # Install to detected tools

Testing locally:

• Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add /path/to/loaf
• Others: loaf install --to all (after npm link)

License

MIT