intuitive-flow

An opinionated operating model for agent-written software.

intuitive-flow is a portable workflow kit for Claude Code and Codex. It keeps the human surface small, puts reusable workflows in skills, and gives each repo local CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md guidance instead of a copied process manual.

License: MIT Shell Claude Code Codex

Why This Exists

AI agents write all my code, so the repo needs two surfaces.

The human surface should stay tiny: README.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, STATUS.md, and docs/human/**. This is where I decide what the project is, what good means, and what must not break.

Everything else is agent territory: source code, plans, logs, generated evidence, retrospectives, scratch work, and low-level churn. Humans can inspect it when something is risky or broken. They should not have to live there.

intuitive-flow exists to make the counter-pressure explicit. AI coding changes the default shape of a repo: agents are good at adding code, tests, plans, logs, and helper surfaces, but they are less likely to stop and ask whether the repo became easier to understand.

The first job is maintenance through entropy reduction. A repo needs regular passes that remove stale surfaces, merge duplicate guidance, clean known seams, realign docs with code, and make the next human or agent less surprised.

The second job is deliberate feature development. New work should not jump straight from idea to implementation when the scope is fuzzy. It should become a plan, get challenged against the repo's language and boundaries, turn into an execution contract, and only then be implemented and verified.

See BELIEFS.md for the doctrine behind this workflow.

The operating bias is deliberately small:

  • Less is more.
  • Codex, Claude Code, similar harnesses, and models will keep evolving; refresh skills against them.
  • Prefer community best practices when they survive local review.

Choose A Path

Start by choosing the kind of work:

Work Route
Maintain or simplify a repo $intuitive-reduce-entropy in repo entropy mode, then route selected cleanup to the owning skill and verify it
Build a feature with unresolved scope or risk $intuitive-preflight, using plan entropy, planning scouts, or grill-batch only when the contract needs them, then $intuitive-flow
Align multiple planning perspectives $agent-planning-loop -> $intuitive-preflight -> $intuitive-flow
Do a tiny bounded task $intuitive-flow directly, when the change is local and easy to verify

The rule of thumb is simple: reduce repo entropy when the codebase itself is getting harder to work in; use a planning path when the next feature is still unclear; use direct flow only when the task is already bounded.

Selected Skill Sources

The managed portfolio is explicit, not a broad import. This repo assigns default, routed, on-demand, and host-specific policy to individual skills in scripts/default-skill-allowlist.txt and leaves the rest upstream until real use justifies promotion. Default and routed entries install normally; on-demand entries remain registered without occupying the normal discovery surface.

Source Stars Selected Skills used
anthropics/skills GitHub stars 1/18 skill-creator
skills-directory/skill-codex GitHub stars 1/1 codex
mattpocock/skills GitHub stars 5/35 grill-with-docs, handoff, improve-codebase-architecture, tdd, zoom-out
DietrichGebert/ponytail GitHub stars 5/6 ponytail, ponytail-audit, ponytail-debt, ponytail-help, ponytail-review
garrytan/gstack GitHub stars 7/55 gstack-autoplan, gstack-browse, gstack-investigate, gstack-open-gstack-browser, gstack-plan-eng-review, gstack-qa, gstack-review
open-gsd/gsd-core GitHub stars 3/69 gsd-pause-work, gsd-progress, gsd-resume-work

Ratios are a current snapshot from the allowlist and upstream skill discovery.

Optional Tool Install

Clone Intuitive Flow when you want the update scripts and local skill sync:

git clone --depth=1 <repo-url> ~/intuitive-flow
~/intuitive-flow/scripts/update.sh

Install a registered on-demand skill for one update run by naming it explicitly:

INTUITIVE_FLOW_ON_DEMAND_SKILLS=plan-bakeoff ~/intuitive-flow/scripts/update.sh

A later default update removes Intuitive-owned on-demand installs that are no longer selected. Host-specific external entries install only for their declared agent host.

For local development in this checkout:

bun install
bun run setup:hooks
bun run verify

Current Map

  • ARCHITECTURE.md: subsystem contracts, extension points, and proof boundaries
  • STATUS.md: current state, supported commands, and maintenance focus
  • docs/human/: human-facing detail that should not bloat the root docs
  • Reduce repo entropy: copy/paste prompts for repo maintenance and plan entropy work
  • BELIEFS.md: supporting doctrine behind the workflow

Generated diagrams, vendored tools, planning scratchpads, and implementation evidence are context, not current truth unless a human doc promotes them.

Contributing

PRs are welcome from humans and AI agents. The most useful contributions are sharper shared rules and fixes to workflows that drift as the underlying CLIs evolve.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.