kaizen-agent 1.7.2 → 1.7.4

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package/README.md CHANGED
@@ -1,657 +1,658 @@
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- <div align="center">
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- <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/main/assets/banner.png" alt="kaizen" width="760">
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- </div>
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-
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- <p align="center"><i>Your AI agent shows you the plan before it does the work,<br>and a second agent checks what it did.</i></p>
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-
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- <p align="center">
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- <a href="https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/stargazers"><img alt="stars" src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/hfadhlullah/kaizen?style=social"></a>
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- <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/kaizen-agent"><img alt="npm" src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/kaizen-agent?color=2d50a5&label=npm"></a>
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- <a href="https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/LICENSE"><img alt="license" src="https://img.shields.io/npm/l/kaizen-agent?color=2d50a5"></a>
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- <img alt="dependencies" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/dependencies-0-2d50a5">
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- <img alt="works with" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Claude%20Code%20%C2%B7%20Codex%20%C2%B7%20Antigravity-2d50a5">
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- </p>
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-
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- ---
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-
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- macOS, Linux, WSL — one paste:
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-
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- ```bash
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- curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
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- ```
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-
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- Windows PowerShell — one paste:
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-
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- ```powershell
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- irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex; & "$env:USERPROFILE\.bun\bin\bunx.exe" kaizen-agent
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- ```
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-
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- Already have Bun? `bunx kaizen-agent`.
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-
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- ---
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-
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- ## The problem
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-
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- You ask an AI to do something real — write the launch email, draft the policy,
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- build the feature, plan the migration. It goes quiet, then hands back a finished
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- thing.
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-
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- Now the work is yours. What did it actually change? Did it understand what you
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- meant? Is any of it wrong in a way you would only notice next week? And if it
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- misread you in the first thirty seconds, everything after that was wasted.
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-
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- kaizen puts two checkpoints in that gap.
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-
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- **Before** it starts, you see a plan and say yes or no. **After** it finishes, a
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- second agent — one that never saw the first agent's reasoning, so it has nothing to
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- defend — checks the work and tells you what is wrong. You decide what gets fixed.
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-
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- ## See it
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-
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- Pick whichever looks like your work. The five stages are identical in all of them —
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- what changes is what *done* and *wrong* mean, which kaizen works out from your
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- request rather than asking you.
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-
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- <details open>
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- <summary><b>A customer email</b> — pricing change announcement</summary>
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-
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- ```
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- you /kaizen rewrite the onboarding email — the new pricing starts on the 1st
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-
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- kaizen Here is the plan.
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-
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- This is a customer email, not a policy page.
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- Done means: a customer knows what changes, when, and what to do — in one read.
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- Wrong means: a claim we cannot stand behind, or someone thinks they are being
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- charged more than they are.
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-
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- What I will do:
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- 1. Rewrite the opening so the date and the amount come first
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- 2. Add one line on what happens if they do nothing
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- 3. Keep the existing sign-off and legal footer untouched
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-
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- Not doing: touching the pricing page itself — say the word if you want that too.
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-
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- Approve this plan? [ approve ] [ change something ]
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-
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- you approve
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-
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- kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
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-
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- 1. paragraph 2 high "Your price will not change" is not true for annual
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- plans renewing after the 1st. Fix: name both cases.
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- 2. subject line low 14 words, cut off on mobile. Fix: lead with the date.
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-
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- Fix them? [ both ] [ just 1 ] [ leave it ]
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- ```
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-
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- Nobody told the reviewer to look for an untrue claim or a truncated subject line. It
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- read the request, concluded this was a customer email, and reviewed it as one.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>Code</b> — a bug in checkout</summary>
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-
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- ```
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- you /kaizen the discount field lets you enter more than 100%
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-
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- kaizen Here is the plan.
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-
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- This is a bug fix in the checkout code.
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- Done means: a discount above 100 is rejected, and the existing tests still pass.
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- Wrong means: valid discounts stop working.
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-
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- What I will do:
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- 1. Add a check in apply_discount() — cart.py:9
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- 2. Cover it with three tests — 0%, 100%, 101%
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-
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- Approve this plan?
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-
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- you approve
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-
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- kaizen Done, and reviewed.
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- Verified: ran the suite — 47 passed, 0 failed. Before the change: 44 passed.
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-
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- One problem found:
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-
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- 1. cart.py:12 medium A discount of exactly 100 now returns 0 instead of
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- being rejected. Fix: use > not >=.
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- ```
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-
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- `done` is a passing suite, so the builder has to show the run and its numbers —
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- before and after. "It should work" is not accepted in any track.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>Marketing</b> — a landing page for a launch</summary>
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-
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- ```
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- you /kaizen landing page copy for the Pro tier launch
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-
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- kaizen Here is the plan.
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-
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- This is launch copy aimed at existing free users, not new visitors.
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- Done means: a free user understands what Pro adds and what it costs, and can
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- act without opening another page.
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- Wrong means: an overclaim, a benefit we do not actually ship, or a price that
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- disagrees with billing.
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-
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- What I will do:
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- 1. Headline and subhead — lead with the one thing free users ask for most
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- 2. Four benefits, each tied to a shipped feature
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- 3. Price block, pulled from the billing config so it cannot drift
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- 4. One CTA, repeated twice
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-
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- Out of scope: the pricing page, the in-app upgrade banner.
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-
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- Approve this plan?
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-
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- you approve
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-
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- kaizen Done, and reviewed. Three things found:
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-
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- 1. benefits 3 high "Unlimited exports" — the shipped limit is 500/month.
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- 2. headline medium Names a competitor. Legal reviews those; flagging, not fixing.
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- 3. CTA low "Get started" appears on the free signup too. Ambiguous.
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- ```
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-
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- The reviewer checked each claim against what actually ships. Finding 2 it refused to
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- fix on its own and handed to you — deliberately.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>Research</b> — a decision memo</summary>
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-
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- ```
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- you /kaizen should we move from per-seat to usage-based pricing? write it up
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-
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- kaizen Here is the plan.
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-
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- This is a decision memo for the founders, not a market report.
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- Done means: a recommendation with the reasoning shown, and the case against it
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- stated fairly enough that someone could disagree on the evidence.
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- Wrong means: a conclusion the evidence does not support, or only looking at
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- the data that agrees with it.
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-
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- What I will do:
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- 1. Pull the last 12 months of seat counts and usage from the billing export
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- 2. Model both against actual accounts — who pays more, who pays less
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- 3. Name the three accounts that break the model, and by how much
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- 4. Recommend, with the strongest argument against it stated first
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-
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- Approve this plan?
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-
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- you approve
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-
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- kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
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-
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- 1. section 3 high The recommendation rests on 4 accounts out of 60. That
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- is not stated where the conclusion is.
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- 2. section 2 medium Churned accounts were excluded with no reason given —
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- they are the ones the model treats worst.
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- ```
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-
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- Nothing here was checked for tests or tone. `wrong` was defined as an unsupported
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- leap and cherry-picked data, so that is what the reviewer went looking for.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>Operations</b> — a migration runbook</summary>
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-
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- ```
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- you /kaizen runbook for moving the database to the new region on Saturday
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-
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- kaizen Here is the plan.
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-
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- This is a runbook someone else executes at 2am, not a description of a plan.
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- Done means: a colleague can follow it start to finish without asking a question.
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- Wrong means: a missing prerequisite, no way back, or a step that silently
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- loses data.
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-
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- What I will do:
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- 1. Prerequisites, with how to verify each one is true before starting
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- 2. Steps in order, each with the exact command and what you should see
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- 3. A rollback for every step that changes state
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- 4. The point of no return, marked
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-
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- Approve this plan?
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-
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- you approve
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-
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- kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
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-
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- 1. step 7 critical No rollback after the DNS cutover, and it is not marked
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- as the point of no return. Fix: mark it, add the TTL wait.
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- 2. step 3 high Says "restore the backup" but never says which backup or
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- how to confirm it is the right one.
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- ```
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- ## The board
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-
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- `kaizen` opens a dashboard; **Board** is the screen where your work lives. Ideas you have
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- not started sit on the left, runs sit under the stage they are actually in, and it redraws
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- itself as your agents write to disk — a run that moves while you are looking at it moves on
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- screen.
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-
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- ```
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- Board ~/work/acme
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-
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- IDEA PLANNING BUILDING REVIEW DONE
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- ────────────────────── ─────────────────── ──────────────── ───────────── ──────────────
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- › · FAQ page for the ● q3 board memo ◐ billing runbook ● pricing ○ chapter three
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- pricing change email
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- ● oauth login ○ pricing
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- · onboarding video research
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- script, two minutes
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-
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- ↑↓←→ move n new e edit x reject d delete r run a all projects q back
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- ● running ◐ stalled ◌ starting ● waiting on you ○ done · idea
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- ```
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-
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- **Throw an idea in with `n`** and it lands in `<state.dir>/inbox.md`, one line each, in the
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- same format a run's backlog already uses. `e` edits, `x` rejects with a reason, `d` deletes.
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-
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- **`r` starts a run from an idea** — it asks `full` or `lite`, then opens your configured
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- agent with the request already typed. The idea retires from the board once a run exists
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- that was started from its text, whoever started it, so the same work never appears twice.
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- That check spans every project you have opened, because an idea thrown into the global
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- inbox becomes a run inside whichever project you launched the agent in.
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-
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- **The dot is what the run is doing.** `●` cyan is running and `◐` is stalled — kaizen
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- records no liveness signal anywhere, so "running" means the run's `state.json` has changed
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- in the last half hour. A run whose terminal you closed three days ago shows as stalled,
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- which is the distinction the board exists to make. `●` amber, with the name in red, is a
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- run that cannot move until you decide something; the legend lists only the states actually
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- on screen.
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-
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- **A run's stage is kaizen's, not yours.** You cannot drag a card between columns — a board
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- that could do that would be lying about what happened. The one exception is `x` on a run
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- card, which abandons it: the same transition `/kaizen abort` makes, with your reason
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- recorded in the run's approval file.
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-
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- `a` switches between this project and every project kaizen knows about. Below a hundred
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- columns the board stacks into a list rather than squeezing five columns into sixty.
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-
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- ### In a browser
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-
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- ```bash
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- kaizen web
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- ```
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-
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- serves the same board on `http://127.0.0.1:7420/` — loopback only, no account — and
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- opens it in a Chromium-family browser as an app window when one is installed, otherwise
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- in a tab.
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-
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- <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/main/assets/board-web.png" alt="kaizen web board" width="760">
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-
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- Same columns, same files: an idea added here lands in `inbox.md`, a run
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- started here opens your agent in a new terminal exactly as `r` does, and the board
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- redraws as your agents write to disk. Mouse first; the TUI's keys still work. Click a card for its plan, review and
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- backlog; `⋯` on a card runs, edits, rejects, abandons or archives. `Clear` on Done sends
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- every finished run to the archive (`.kaizen/archive.md`, a list, nothing moves), and
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- `Archive` in the strip shows what is there, with `Restore` on each card. The gear at the top right holds the browser's theme
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- and every `kaizen settings` knob, same rows, same `config.yml`. `--port N` picks a port, `--no-open` just
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- serves, the board opens on every project; `?all=0` in the URL narrows it to the one it was started in. `--daemon` starts the server
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- detached so it outlives the terminal (pid kept in `~/.kaizen/web.pid`); `--stop` ends it. `kaizen web --shortcut` adds a launcher
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- the OS can find — Spotlight on macOS, the app menu on Linux, a Desktop shortcut on Windows.
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-
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- **Dictate instead of type.** Every text field on the board — a new idea, its notes, an
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- edit, a reject reason, a note on a run — has a mic. Press it, talk, press it again; the
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- words land at the caret next to whatever you had typed. Recognition is Whisper running
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- inside the page, so audio never leaves your machine. The first press downloads the model
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- from huggingface.co (about 165 MB on a WebGPU browser, up to 205 MB on a GPU without fp16, 80 MB on the CPU fallback) and
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- caches it in the browser. The transformers.js library itself is fetched from jsDelivr the
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- first time you press the mic in a session, so that first press needs the network; the
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- model does not download again. Chromium and Edge qualify (Firefox falls back to the
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- slower CPU path); a browser without a microphone API or WebAssembly shows no mic.
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-
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- ### Mouse
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-
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- Off by default. Turn it on in `kaizen settings` under `ui.mouse`, and clicking a row or
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- card selects it, clicking it again opens or runs it, and the wheel scrolls — on the board,
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- the menu, runs, backlog, projects and settings.
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-
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- It ships off because the trade is real: while the TUI holds the mouse, your terminal cannot
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- select text with it, so copying a run id out of the dashboard stops working until you
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- leave. Hold **Shift** and drag to select text anyway.
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-
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- ## Install
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-
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- Kaizen's installer and interactive dashboard require [Bun](https://bun.sh) — it is
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- the only prerequisite. Pick your platform:
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-
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- <details open>
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- <summary><b>Windows</b></summary>
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-
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- In PowerShell:
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-
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- ```powershell
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- irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex; & "$env:USERPROFILE\.bun\bin\bunx.exe" kaizen-agent
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- ```
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-
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- One line, because the shell that just installed Bun does not have it on `PATH` yet;
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- the full path sidesteps that. Next time, plain `bunx kaizen-agent`.
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-
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- Git is not required. Where it is missing, kaizen copies itself into `%USERPROFILE%\kaizen`
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- instead of cloning, and `bunx kaizen-agent` is also how you update. Links are made as
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- directory junctions and file copies, so no administrator rights or Developer Mode are
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- needed. WSL users can follow the Linux instructions instead.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>macOS</b></summary>
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-
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- ```bash
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- curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
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- ```
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-
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- Or `brew install oven-sh/bun/bun`, then `bunx kaizen-agent`.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- <details>
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- <summary><b>Linux</b></summary>
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-
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- ```bash
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- curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
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- ```
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-
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- The full path is there because the shell that just installed Bun does not have it on
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- `PATH` until you open a new one. Next time, plain `bunx kaizen-agent`.
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-
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- </details>
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-
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- The installer walks you through where to install, prompts for your workflow preset (`medium`, `low`, or `ultra`), then tells you what to type next. Restart your editor afterwards.
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-
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- Run from inside a project it asks whether to install globally or for that project
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- alone; anywhere else — your home directory, a plain folder, a script — it installs
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- globally without asking, since a project install outside a project has nothing to
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- belong to.
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-
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- **It installs for every agent you already have.** The skill folders follow the open
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- Agent Skills standard, so the same workflow runs under any of them:
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-
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- | Agent | Gets | Stages run |
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- |---|---|---|
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- | Claude Code | Skills, the three stage agents, the slash commands | Each as its own subagent |
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- | Codex | Skills | Sequentially, one session |
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- | Antigravity | Skills | Parallel agents where available, else sequentially |
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- | OpenCode, Cursor, Gemini CLI | Skills | Sequentially, one session |
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- An agent counts as present if it has a config directory or a command on your PATH.
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- Only what is already there is touched — installing does not create `~/.opencode` for
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- someone who does not use OpenCode. Install again after adding an agent and it picks
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- the new one up.
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- **No agent yet?** kaizen does nothing on its own — it is a workflow an agent runs.
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- If none is found, the installer says so and offers the list above, opening the
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- install page for whichever you pick. Install it, run `kaizen` again, and carry on.
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-
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- The stage agents and slash commands are Claude Code's own formats and are not copied
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- elsewhere; under the others you invoke the skill by name. `.kaizen/` is plain files
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- either way, so a run started in one tool can be finished in another.
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-
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- Run `kaizen` anytime to open the terminal dashboard:
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-
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- ```
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- ⠀⠀⠀⣰⠖⠾⣟⣛⠋⢉⣩⠽⢛⡽⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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- ⠀⠀⢰⢻⠀⠀⢀⡬⠟⠉⢀⠴⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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- ⠀⢠⠇⣾⡠⠞⢩⠤⢄⡚⣁⣀⣀⣀⢀⣠⠤⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ █ █ ▄▀█ █ ▀▀█ █▀▀ █▄ █
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- ⢠⣏⠔⣫⣀⡤⢸⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ █▀▄ █▀█ █ ▄▀ ██▄ █ ▀█
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- ⢾⠥⢾⡅⢧⠀⢸⠃⡤⠖⠢⡀⢀⠔⠲⢤⠘⡇⠀⠀⣀⣀⠀⠀ █ █ █ █ █ █▄▄ █▄▄ █ █
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- ⠀⠀⠈⣇⠈⢠⣫⠞⠀⠘⢱⢣⡜⡎⠃⠀⠳⣝⡄⢠⠇⢻⢉⣷
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- ⠀⠀⠀⠘⢆⠀⠑⢦⣀⡀⠈⠓⠚⠁⢀⣀⣤⣊⣠⢾⡀⢠⣿⠃ 0.7.2 plan · approve · build · review
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- ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠓⢄⠀⠀⠉⣉⣭⣭⣉⠉⠀⠈⢀⣠⢔⡩⠥⢥⡀ ~/Projects/app
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- ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⡇⠀⡞⠁⠀⠀⠈⢳⠀⢰⣍⣠⠚⠧⡀⠀⡷ Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, OpenCode, Gemini CLI
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- ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⡇⠀⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⠀⢠⡏⠀⠀⢀⣳⠞⠁
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- ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠳⣀⣨⠥⠤⠶⠾⣅⣀⠞⠉⠉⠉⠉⠀⠀⠀
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-
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- ╭─ Runs ──────────────────────────────────╮ ╭─ Backlog — 4 open ──────────────────────────╮
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- │ ● fix-discount waiting on you │ │ cart.py:12 low use > not >= │
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- │ ● cache-headers in review │ │ headline med legal review │
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- │ ● 3 done │ │ … 2 more │
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- ╰─────────────────────────────────────────╯ ╰─────────────────────────────────────────────╯
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-
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- › All projects every project kaizen knows about
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- Runs
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- Backlog
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- Settings
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- Upgrade
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- Quit
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- ```
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-
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- It monitors your runs and backlog across all your projects without having to open an agent.
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- Installing puts the `kaizen` command on your PATH, so updating later is:
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-
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- ```bash
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- kaizen upgrade
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- ```
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-
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- That pulls the latest workflow, relinks anything new, and clears the installer cache
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- `bunx` keeps — which is what otherwise leaves you on an old version without saying
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- so. `bunx kaizen-agent upgrade` does the same thing if you would rather not have the
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- command. `kaizen --version` prints what is installed; `bunx kaizen-agent --version`
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- prints what npm has.
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-
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- Then, in any project, just ask for something:
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-
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- ```
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- /kaizen <what you want done>
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- ```
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-
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- The first run sets the project up on its own — a `.kaizen/` folder holding the run's
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- files. Nothing to initialise by hand. (`/kaizen-init` exists if you want to do it
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- ahead of time, and the installer offers it for the project you install from.)
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-
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- Setup also adds a short section to the project's `CLAUDE.md`, so you can stop typing
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- `/kaizen` entirely — ask for something the normal way and work worth a plan goes
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- through the stages on its own. It draws the line at work worth a plan: a change
456
- across more than one file, anything with a migration or a rollback, a document
457
- someone else will act on. Questions and one-line fixes are answered, not staged.
458
- Delete that section to go back to `/kaizen` being explicit.
459
-
460
- That is the whole thing. Everything below is detail.
461
-
462
- ## How a run goes
463
-
464
- | | Stage | What happens |
465
- |---|---|---|
466
- | 1 | **Plan** | Reads your request and the existing material, writes a plan. Changes nothing. |
467
- | 2 | **You approve** | You see the plan and the work list. Say yes, or say what to change. |
468
- | 3 | **Build** | Does the work, then proves it — runs the tests, checks the claim against its source, walks the steps — and records what actually came back. |
469
- | 4 | **Review** | A different agent, which never saw stage 3's reasoning, checks the work and lists what is wrong, numbered and graded. |
470
- | 5 | **Fix** | Serious findings get fixed and re-checked, up to a limit. Anything left over is handed to you, never quietly dropped. |
471
-
472
- Each stage runs as its own agent with a clean slate, and writes a file before the
473
- next one starts. That is what makes stage 4 worth anything: a reviewer that watched
474
- itself do the work will defend it.
475
-
476
- Stage 3 is the one you can move. Set `build.executor` to `inline` and the agent you
477
- are already talking to does the work — you watch each step and can interrupt — or
478
- leave it as `subagent` and it is handed off and reported back, which keeps your
479
- conversation short and is the only workable choice on a big run. Set it to `ask` to
480
- be offered the choice each time you approve a plan. Stage 4 does not move: the
481
- reviewer is a separate agent either way, because that is the whole reason its
482
- findings are worth reading.
483
-
484
- ## How it knows what kind of work this is
485
-
486
- kaizen is not a software workflow. The same five stages hold for a book chapter, a
487
- launch email, a migration runbook, or a research memo — what changes is what
488
- *deliverable*, *done*, and *wrong* mean.
489
-
490
- Each run works that out for itself — its **track** — by answering three questions
491
- from your request:
492
-
493
- - **What is the deliverable?** A merged change, a chapter, a landing page, a runbook.
494
- - **What counts as done?** Tests pass. The chapter reads end to end. A colleague can
495
- follow the runbook unaided.
496
- - **What would make it wrong?** A security hole. A claim that is not true. A step
497
- that silently loses data.
498
-
499
- The third answer is what the reviewer becomes. A reviewer hunting race conditions in
500
- a book manuscript is worse than no reviewer at all, and the track is what prevents
501
- it. You are never asked to categorise your own request — it reads the request and
502
- tells you what it concluded, so you correct a sentence instead of filling in a form.
503
-
504
- ## Commands
505
-
506
- | Command | What it does |
507
- |---|---|
508
- | `/kaizen <request>` | Start a run |
509
- | `/kaizen-plan <request>` | Plan only — stop before anything is built |
510
- | `/kaizen-auto <request>` | No approval stops; report at the end |
511
- | `/kaizen-lite <request>` | Every stage in this session — cheap, and the reviewer has seen the work |
512
- | `/kaizen-full <request>` | Every stage its own cold agent — the independent review |
513
- | `/kaizen-review [target]` | Review something that already exists |
514
- | `/kaizen-status` | What is waiting on you, in flight, done |
515
- | `/kaizen-approve` | Approve whatever the run is waiting on |
516
- | `/kaizen-reject <reason>` | Send it back with a reason, or kill the run |
517
- | `/kaizen-run` | Carry on with an approved plan |
518
- | `/kaizen-backlog` | Everything noticed but not done, across all runs |
519
- | `/kaizen-abort` | Abandon the current run |
520
- | `/kaizen-config` | Show this project's settings and change them |
521
- | `/kaizen-init` | Set up the current project — optional, the first run does it |
522
- | `/kaizen-help` | The full card |
523
-
524
- ## What it writes
525
-
526
- Everything a run knows lives in files next to the work, not in a chat window:
527
-
528
- ```
529
- .kaizen/
530
- memory.md # what past reviews learned about this project
531
- runs/2026-09-07-onboarding-email/
532
- 00-request.md # what you asked, word for word
533
- 01-plan.md # the plan you approved
534
- 02-approval.md # what you decided, and why
535
- 03-impl.md # what changed, and the proof it works
536
- 04-review.md # findings, numbered and graded
537
- 06-backlog.md # what was noticed but not done
538
- ```
539
-
540
- Plain files, so you can read them, commit them, and pick a run back up tomorrow —
541
- or in another tool. kaizen also runs under Codex and Antigravity, and a run started
542
- in one can be finished in another. See [adapters.md](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/adapters.md).
543
-
544
- ## Settings
545
-
546
- `~/.kaizen/config.yml` — one file, every project. The three worth knowing:
547
-
548
- | Setting | Default | Meaning |
549
- |---|---|---|
550
- | `mode` | `approve` | `approve` stops for you; `auto` never does; `plan-only` stops after the plan |
551
- | `runner` | `full` | `full` gives each stage its own agent, so the reviewer never saw the work — several times the cost. `lite` runs every stage here, at about the cost of doing it by hand |
552
- | `build.executor` | `subagent` | Who does the work: a separate agent, `inline` in the current one, or `ask` each time |
553
- | `auto_fix.min_severity` | `high` | Findings this bad or worse get fixed without asking |
554
- | `approvals.plan` | `true` | Stop and show the plan before anything is built |
555
- | `ui.mouse` | `false` | Click to select, click again to act; while on, the terminal cannot select text |
556
- | `subagents.model` | `inherit` | Model the stage subagents run on: `inherit`, `opus`, `sonnet`, `haiku` (Claude Code only) |
557
- | `agent.<cmd>.model`, `agent.<cmd>.effort` | — | Model/effort the board launches a session with, per tool: `claude`, `codex`, `agy`, `opencode`, `gemini`. Model names are the tool's own (`agy models`) |
558
- | `subagents.effort` | `inherit` | Reasoning effort for the stage subagents: `inherit`, `low`, `medium`, `high` (Claude Code only) |
559
-
560
- ```bash
561
- kaizen settings
562
- ```
563
-
564
- opens a full-screen browser over the whole file — arrows to move and change, every
565
- change written as you make it, esc to close:
566
-
567
- ```
568
- kaizen settings ~/.kaizen/config.yml
569
-
570
- › preset medium
571
- mode approve
572
- runner full
573
- build.executor subagent
574
- approvals.plan true
575
- approvals.review false
576
- auto_fix.enabled true
577
- auto_fix.min_severity high
578
- auto_fix.max_iterations 2
579
- ...
580
-
581
- Quick preset — low: inline & manual, medium: balanced, ultra: autonomous subagents
582
-
583
- ↑↓ move · ←→ change · esc close saved preset = medium
584
- ```
585
-
586
- One project can differ: put a `.kaizen/config.yml` in it with just the keys to
587
- override, and it wins there while everything else follows the global file.
588
- It edits each line in place, so the comment above every key survives. `/kaizen-config`
589
- does the same thing from inside your agent if you would rather not leave it. Everything is also
590
- in [`config.default.yml`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/config.default.yml),
591
- with a comment on each key, if you would rather edit the file.
592
-
593
- ## Under the hood
594
-
595
- - [`SKILL.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/SKILL.md) — how the workflow behaves
596
- - [`spec.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/spec.md) — the tool-neutral contract every stage follows
597
- - [`adapters.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/adapters.md) — running it under Codex or Antigravity
598
-
599
- <details>
600
- <summary>Installer flags, updating, and installing without bun</summary>
601
-
602
- | Flag | Effect |
603
- |---|---|
604
- | *(none)* | Ask when standing in a project, otherwise install globally |
605
- | `--global` | Globally, no question asked |
606
- | `--project` | Into the current directory only |
607
- | `--check` | Report what is linked, exit non-zero if anything is missing |
608
- | `--force` | Replace a real file sitting where a link belongs |
609
- | `--preset <name>` | Pre-select workflow preset (`low`, `medium`, or `ultra`) |
610
- | `--yes` | Take every default, ask nothing |
611
- | `--verbose` | List every link instead of a one-line summary |
612
- | `upgrade` | Pull, relink, and clear the installer cache. No prompts. |
613
- | `uninstall` | Remove the links, the clone, and the launcher. Asks whether to keep your runs and settings. |
614
- | `uninstall --purge` | The same, and delete `~/.kaizen` and this project's `.kaizen/` too. |
615
- | `settings` | Open the settings browser for the nearest `.kaizen/`. Also `config`. |
616
-
617
- Uninstalling works the same on Linux, macOS and Windows — `kaizen uninstall`, or
618
- `bunx kaizen-agent uninstall` when the command itself is already gone. It offers three
619
- answers — keep your runs and settings, remove everything, or cancel — and takes the
620
- first without asking when the output is not a terminal. It lists what it removed; the `## Kaizen workflow` line in each project's `CLAUDE.md` is left for
621
- you to delete, since you may have edited around it.
622
-
623
- A global install also writes `~/.local/bin/kaizen` (`kaizen.cmd` in bun's bin
624
- directory on Windows), a two-line launcher pointing at
625
- the clone, so `kaizen upgrade` works from anywhere. It tells you if that directory is
626
- not on your PATH. `uninstall` removes it; `--project` installs skip it.
627
-
628
- Re-running is safe: correct links are left alone.
629
-
630
- `bunx` extracts a package once and reuses it without re-resolving, so a plain
631
- `bunx kaizen-agent` can keep running an old installer even after a new one is
632
- published. `upgrade` clears that copy, so the next run resolves fresh. The workflow
633
- itself — skills, agents, commands — comes from the clone and updates on any run.
634
-
635
- To work on kaizen itself, install from your own checkout so the links point at it:
636
-
637
- ```bash
638
- git clone https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen.git ~/kaizen
639
- cd ~/kaizen && bun run cli/install.ts
640
- ```
641
-
642
- Without bun:
643
-
644
- ```bash
645
- mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills ~/.claude/agents ~/.claude/commands
646
- ln -s ~/kaizen/skills/kaizen ~/.claude/skills/kaizen
647
- ln -s ~/kaizen/skills/kaizen-help ~/.claude/skills/kaizen-help
648
- for f in ~/kaizen/agents/kaizen-*.md; do ln -s "$f" ~/.claude/agents/"$(basename "$f")"; done
649
- for f in ~/kaizen/commands/kaizen-*.md; do ln -s "$f" ~/.claude/commands/"$(basename "$f")"; done
650
- ```
651
-
652
- </details>
653
-
654
- ## License
655
-
656
- MIT. *Kaizen (改善) is Japanese for continuous improvement — small changes, checked
657
- as you go.*
1
+ <div align="center">
2
+ <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/main/assets/banner.png" alt="kaizen" width="760">
3
+ </div>
4
+
5
+ <p align="center"><i>Your AI agent shows you the plan before it does the work,<br>and a second agent checks what it did.</i></p>
6
+
7
+ <p align="center">
8
+ <a href="https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/stargazers"><img alt="stars" src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/hfadhlullah/kaizen?style=social"></a>
9
+ <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/kaizen-agent"><img alt="npm" src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/kaizen-agent?color=2d50a5&label=npm"></a>
10
+ <a href="https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/LICENSE"><img alt="license" src="https://img.shields.io/npm/l/kaizen-agent?color=2d50a5"></a>
11
+ <img alt="dependencies" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/dependencies-0-2d50a5">
12
+ <img alt="works with" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Claude%20Code%20%C2%B7%20Codex%20%C2%B7%20Antigravity-2d50a5">
13
+ </p>
14
+
15
+ ---
16
+
17
+ macOS, Linux, WSL — one paste:
18
+
19
+ ```bash
20
+ curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
21
+ ```
22
+
23
+ Windows PowerShell — one paste:
24
+
25
+ ```powershell
26
+ irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex; & "$env:USERPROFILE\.bun\bin\bunx.exe" kaizen-agent
27
+ ```
28
+
29
+ Already have Bun? `bunx kaizen-agent`.
30
+
31
+ ---
32
+
33
+ ## The problem
34
+
35
+ You ask an AI to do something real — write the launch email, draft the policy,
36
+ build the feature, plan the migration. It goes quiet, then hands back a finished
37
+ thing.
38
+
39
+ Now the work is yours. What did it actually change? Did it understand what you
40
+ meant? Is any of it wrong in a way you would only notice next week? And if it
41
+ misread you in the first thirty seconds, everything after that was wasted.
42
+
43
+ kaizen puts two checkpoints in that gap.
44
+
45
+ **Before** it starts, you see a plan and say yes or no. **After** it finishes, a
46
+ second agent — one that never saw the first agent's reasoning, so it has nothing to
47
+ defend — checks the work and tells you what is wrong. You decide what gets fixed.
48
+
49
+ ## See it
50
+
51
+ Pick whichever looks like your work. The five stages are identical in all of them —
52
+ what changes is what *done* and *wrong* mean, which kaizen works out from your
53
+ request rather than asking you.
54
+
55
+ <details open>
56
+ <summary><b>A customer email</b> — pricing change announcement</summary>
57
+
58
+ ```
59
+ you /kaizen rewrite the onboarding email — the new pricing starts on the 1st
60
+
61
+ kaizen Here is the plan.
62
+
63
+ This is a customer email, not a policy page.
64
+ Done means: a customer knows what changes, when, and what to do — in one read.
65
+ Wrong means: a claim we cannot stand behind, or someone thinks they are being
66
+ charged more than they are.
67
+
68
+ What I will do:
69
+ 1. Rewrite the opening so the date and the amount come first
70
+ 2. Add one line on what happens if they do nothing
71
+ 3. Keep the existing sign-off and legal footer untouched
72
+
73
+ Not doing: touching the pricing page itself — say the word if you want that too.
74
+
75
+ Approve this plan? [ approve ] [ change something ]
76
+
77
+ you approve
78
+
79
+ kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
80
+
81
+ 1. paragraph 2 high "Your price will not change" is not true for annual
82
+ plans renewing after the 1st. Fix: name both cases.
83
+ 2. subject line low 14 words, cut off on mobile. Fix: lead with the date.
84
+
85
+ Fix them? [ both ] [ just 1 ] [ leave it ]
86
+ ```
87
+
88
+ Nobody told the reviewer to look for an untrue claim or a truncated subject line. It
89
+ read the request, concluded this was a customer email, and reviewed it as one.
90
+
91
+ </details>
92
+
93
+ <details>
94
+ <summary><b>Code</b> — a bug in checkout</summary>
95
+
96
+ ```
97
+ you /kaizen the discount field lets you enter more than 100%
98
+
99
+ kaizen Here is the plan.
100
+
101
+ This is a bug fix in the checkout code.
102
+ Done means: a discount above 100 is rejected, and the existing tests still pass.
103
+ Wrong means: valid discounts stop working.
104
+
105
+ What I will do:
106
+ 1. Add a check in apply_discount() — cart.py:9
107
+ 2. Cover it with three tests — 0%, 100%, 101%
108
+
109
+ Approve this plan?
110
+
111
+ you approve
112
+
113
+ kaizen Done, and reviewed.
114
+ Verified: ran the suite — 47 passed, 0 failed. Before the change: 44 passed.
115
+
116
+ One problem found:
117
+
118
+ 1. cart.py:12 medium A discount of exactly 100 now returns 0 instead of
119
+ being rejected. Fix: use > not >=.
120
+ ```
121
+
122
+ `done` is a passing suite, so the builder has to show the run and its numbers —
123
+ before and after. "It should work" is not accepted in any track.
124
+
125
+ </details>
126
+
127
+ <details>
128
+ <summary><b>Marketing</b> — a landing page for a launch</summary>
129
+
130
+ ```
131
+ you /kaizen landing page copy for the Pro tier launch
132
+
133
+ kaizen Here is the plan.
134
+
135
+ This is launch copy aimed at existing free users, not new visitors.
136
+ Done means: a free user understands what Pro adds and what it costs, and can
137
+ act without opening another page.
138
+ Wrong means: an overclaim, a benefit we do not actually ship, or a price that
139
+ disagrees with billing.
140
+
141
+ What I will do:
142
+ 1. Headline and subhead — lead with the one thing free users ask for most
143
+ 2. Four benefits, each tied to a shipped feature
144
+ 3. Price block, pulled from the billing config so it cannot drift
145
+ 4. One CTA, repeated twice
146
+
147
+ Out of scope: the pricing page, the in-app upgrade banner.
148
+
149
+ Approve this plan?
150
+
151
+ you approve
152
+
153
+ kaizen Done, and reviewed. Three things found:
154
+
155
+ 1. benefits 3 high "Unlimited exports" — the shipped limit is 500/month.
156
+ 2. headline medium Names a competitor. Legal reviews those; flagging, not fixing.
157
+ 3. CTA low "Get started" appears on the free signup too. Ambiguous.
158
+ ```
159
+
160
+ The reviewer checked each claim against what actually ships. Finding 2 it refused to
161
+ fix on its own and handed to you — deliberately.
162
+
163
+ </details>
164
+
165
+ <details>
166
+ <summary><b>Research</b> — a decision memo</summary>
167
+
168
+ ```
169
+ you /kaizen should we move from per-seat to usage-based pricing? write it up
170
+
171
+ kaizen Here is the plan.
172
+
173
+ This is a decision memo for the founders, not a market report.
174
+ Done means: a recommendation with the reasoning shown, and the case against it
175
+ stated fairly enough that someone could disagree on the evidence.
176
+ Wrong means: a conclusion the evidence does not support, or only looking at
177
+ the data that agrees with it.
178
+
179
+ What I will do:
180
+ 1. Pull the last 12 months of seat counts and usage from the billing export
181
+ 2. Model both against actual accounts — who pays more, who pays less
182
+ 3. Name the three accounts that break the model, and by how much
183
+ 4. Recommend, with the strongest argument against it stated first
184
+
185
+ Approve this plan?
186
+
187
+ you approve
188
+
189
+ kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
190
+
191
+ 1. section 3 high The recommendation rests on 4 accounts out of 60. That
192
+ is not stated where the conclusion is.
193
+ 2. section 2 medium Churned accounts were excluded with no reason given —
194
+ they are the ones the model treats worst.
195
+ ```
196
+
197
+ Nothing here was checked for tests or tone. `wrong` was defined as an unsupported
198
+ leap and cherry-picked data, so that is what the reviewer went looking for.
199
+
200
+ </details>
201
+
202
+ <details>
203
+ <summary><b>Operations</b> — a migration runbook</summary>
204
+
205
+ ```
206
+ you /kaizen runbook for moving the database to the new region on Saturday
207
+
208
+ kaizen Here is the plan.
209
+
210
+ This is a runbook someone else executes at 2am, not a description of a plan.
211
+ Done means: a colleague can follow it start to finish without asking a question.
212
+ Wrong means: a missing prerequisite, no way back, or a step that silently
213
+ loses data.
214
+
215
+ What I will do:
216
+ 1. Prerequisites, with how to verify each one is true before starting
217
+ 2. Steps in order, each with the exact command and what you should see
218
+ 3. A rollback for every step that changes state
219
+ 4. The point of no return, marked
220
+
221
+ Approve this plan?
222
+
223
+ you approve
224
+
225
+ kaizen Done, and reviewed. Two things found:
226
+
227
+ 1. step 7 critical No rollback after the DNS cutover, and it is not marked
228
+ as the point of no return. Fix: mark it, add the TTL wait.
229
+ 2. step 3 high Says "restore the backup" but never says which backup or
230
+ how to confirm it is the right one.
231
+ ```
232
+
233
+ </details>
234
+
235
+ ## The board
236
+
237
+ `kaizen` opens a dashboard; **Board** is the screen where your work lives. Ideas you have
238
+ not started sit on the left, runs sit under the stage they are actually in, and it redraws
239
+ itself as your agents write to disk — a run that moves while you are looking at it moves on
240
+ screen.
241
+
242
+ ```
243
+ Board ~/work/acme
244
+
245
+ IDEA PLANNING BUILDING REVIEW DONE
246
+ ────────────────────── ─────────────────── ──────────────── ───────────── ──────────────
247
+ › · FAQ page for the ● q3 board memo ◐ billing runbook ● pricing ○ chapter three
248
+ pricing change email
249
+ ● oauth login ○ pricing
250
+ · onboarding video research
251
+ script, two minutes
252
+
253
+ ↑↓←→ move n new e edit x reject d delete r run a all projects q back
254
+ ● running ◐ stalled ◌ starting ● waiting on you ○ done · idea
255
+ ```
256
+
257
+ **Throw an idea in with `n`** and it lands in `<state.dir>/inbox.md`, one line each, in the
258
+ same format a run's backlog already uses. `e` edits, `x` rejects with a reason, `d` deletes.
259
+
260
+ **`r` starts a run from an idea** — it asks `full` or `lite`, then opens your configured
261
+ agent with the request already typed. The idea retires from the board once a run exists
262
+ that was started from its text, whoever started it, so the same work never appears twice.
263
+ That check spans every project you have opened, because an idea thrown into the global
264
+ inbox becomes a run inside whichever project you launched the agent in.
265
+
266
+ **The dot is what the run is doing.** `●` cyan is running and `◐` is stalled — kaizen
267
+ records no liveness signal anywhere, so "running" means the run's `state.json` has changed
268
+ in the last half hour. A run whose terminal you closed three days ago shows as stalled,
269
+ which is the distinction the board exists to make. `●` amber, with the name in red, is a
270
+ run that cannot move until you decide something; the legend lists only the states actually
271
+ on screen.
272
+
273
+ **A run's stage is kaizen's, not yours.** You cannot drag a card between columns — a board
274
+ that could do that would be lying about what happened. The one exception is `x` on a run
275
+ card, which abandons it: the same transition `/kaizen abort` makes, with your reason
276
+ recorded in the run's approval file.
277
+
278
+ `a` switches between this project and every project kaizen knows about. Below a hundred
279
+ columns the board stacks into a list rather than squeezing five columns into sixty.
280
+
281
+ ### In a browser
282
+
283
+ ```bash
284
+ kaizen web
285
+ ```
286
+
287
+ serves the same board on `http://127.0.0.1:7420/` — loopback only, no account — and
288
+ opens it in a Chromium-family browser as an app window when one is installed, otherwise
289
+ in a tab.
290
+
291
+ <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/main/assets/board-web.png" alt="kaizen web board" width="760">
292
+
293
+ Same columns, same files: an idea added here lands in `inbox.md`, a run
294
+ started here opens your agent in a new terminal exactly as `r` does, and the board
295
+ redraws as your agents write to disk. Mouse first; the TUI's keys still work. Click a card for its plan, review and
296
+ backlog; `⋯` on a card runs, edits, rejects, abandons or archives. `Clear` on Done sends
297
+ every finished run to the archive (`.kaizen/archive.md`, a list, nothing moves), and
298
+ `Archive` in the strip shows what is there, with `Restore` on each card. The gear at the top right holds the browser's theme
299
+ and every `kaizen settings` knob, same rows, same `config.yml`. `--port N` picks a port, `--no-open` just
300
+ serves, the board opens on every project; `?all=0` in the URL narrows it to the one it was started in. `--daemon` starts the server
301
+ detached so it outlives the terminal (pid kept in `~/.kaizen/web.pid`); `--stop` ends it. `kaizen web --shortcut` adds a launcher
302
+ the OS can find — Spotlight on macOS, the app menu on Linux, a Desktop shortcut on Windows.
303
+
304
+ **Dictate instead of type.** Every text field on the board — a new idea, its notes, an
305
+ edit, a reject reason, a note on a run — has a mic. Press it, talk, press it again; the
306
+ words land at the caret next to whatever you had typed. Recognition is Whisper running
307
+ inside the page, so audio never leaves your machine. The first press downloads the model
308
+ from huggingface.co and caches it in the browser: `small` by default (about 410 MB,
309
+ accurate across languages); `kaizen settings` → *Dictation model* — or the gear on the
310
+ board — switches to `tiny`, `base`, or `large-v3-turbo` (about 1.5 GB, needs a capable GPU). The transformers.js library itself is fetched from jsDelivr the
311
+ first time you press the mic in a session, so that first press needs the network; the
312
+ model does not download again. Chromium and Edge qualify (Firefox falls back to the
313
+ slower CPU path); a browser without a microphone API or WebAssembly shows no mic.
314
+
315
+ ### Mouse
316
+
317
+ Off by default. Turn it on in `kaizen settings` under `ui.mouse`, and clicking a row or
318
+ card selects it, clicking it again opens or runs it, and the wheel scrolls — on the board,
319
+ the menu, runs, backlog, projects and settings.
320
+
321
+ It ships off because the trade is real: while the TUI holds the mouse, your terminal cannot
322
+ select text with it, so copying a run id out of the dashboard stops working until you
323
+ leave. Hold **Shift** and drag to select text anyway.
324
+
325
+ ## Install
326
+
327
+ Kaizen's installer and interactive dashboard require [Bun](https://bun.sh) — it is
328
+ the only prerequisite. Pick your platform:
329
+
330
+ <details open>
331
+ <summary><b>Windows</b></summary>
332
+
333
+ In PowerShell:
334
+
335
+ ```powershell
336
+ irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex; & "$env:USERPROFILE\.bun\bin\bunx.exe" kaizen-agent
337
+ ```
338
+
339
+ One line, because the shell that just installed Bun does not have it on `PATH` yet;
340
+ the full path sidesteps that. Next time, plain `bunx kaizen-agent`.
341
+
342
+ Git is not required. Where it is missing, kaizen copies itself into `%USERPROFILE%\kaizen`
343
+ instead of cloning, and `bunx kaizen-agent` is also how you update. Links are made as
344
+ directory junctions and file copies, so no administrator rights or Developer Mode are
345
+ needed. WSL users can follow the Linux instructions instead.
346
+
347
+ </details>
348
+
349
+ <details>
350
+ <summary><b>macOS</b></summary>
351
+
352
+ ```bash
353
+ curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
354
+ ```
355
+
356
+ Or `brew install oven-sh/bun/bun`, then `bunx kaizen-agent`.
357
+
358
+ </details>
359
+
360
+ <details>
361
+ <summary><b>Linux</b></summary>
362
+
363
+ ```bash
364
+ curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash && ~/.bun/bin/bunx kaizen-agent
365
+ ```
366
+
367
+ The full path is there because the shell that just installed Bun does not have it on
368
+ `PATH` until you open a new one. Next time, plain `bunx kaizen-agent`.
369
+
370
+ </details>
371
+
372
+ The installer walks you through where to install, prompts for your workflow preset (`medium`, `low`, or `ultra`), then tells you what to type next. Restart your editor afterwards.
373
+
374
+ Run from inside a project it asks whether to install globally or for that project
375
+ alone; anywhere else — your home directory, a plain folder, a script — it installs
376
+ globally without asking, since a project install outside a project has nothing to
377
+ belong to.
378
+
379
+ **It installs for every agent you already have.** The skill folders follow the open
380
+ Agent Skills standard, so the same workflow runs under any of them:
381
+
382
+ | Agent | Gets | Stages run |
383
+ |---|---|---|
384
+ | Claude Code | Skills, the three stage agents, the slash commands | Each as its own subagent |
385
+ | Codex | Skills | Sequentially, one session |
386
+ | Antigravity | Skills | Parallel agents where available, else sequentially |
387
+ | OpenCode, Cursor, Gemini CLI | Skills | Sequentially, one session |
388
+
389
+ An agent counts as present if it has a config directory or a command on your PATH.
390
+ Only what is already there is touched — installing does not create `~/.opencode` for
391
+ someone who does not use OpenCode. Install again after adding an agent and it picks
392
+ the new one up.
393
+
394
+ **No agent yet?** kaizen does nothing on its own — it is a workflow an agent runs.
395
+ If none is found, the installer says so and offers the list above, opening the
396
+ install page for whichever you pick. Install it, run `kaizen` again, and carry on.
397
+
398
+ The stage agents and slash commands are Claude Code's own formats and are not copied
399
+ elsewhere; under the others you invoke the skill by name. `.kaizen/` is plain files
400
+ either way, so a run started in one tool can be finished in another.
401
+
402
+ Run `kaizen` anytime to open the terminal dashboard:
403
+
404
+ ```
405
+ ⠀⠀⠀⣰⠖⠾⣟⣛⠋⢉⣩⠽⢛⡽⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
406
+ ⠀⠀⢰⢻⠀⠀⢀⡬⠟⠉⢀⠴⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
407
+ ⠀⢠⠇⣾⡠⠞⢩⠤⢄⡚⣁⣀⣀⣀⢀⣠⠤⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ █ █ ▄▀█ █ ▀▀█ █▀▀ █▄ █
408
+ ⢠⣏⠔⣫⣀⡤⢸⠀⠀⠉⠁⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⠀⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ █▀▄ █▀█ █ ▄▀ ██▄ █ ▀█
409
+ ⢾⠥⢾⡅⢧⠀⢸⠃⡤⠖⠢⡀⢀⠔⠲⢤⠘⡇⠀⠀⣀⣀⠀⠀ █ █ █ █ █ █▄▄ █▄▄ █ █
410
+ ⠀⠀⠈⣇⠈⢠⣫⠞⠀⠘⢱⢣⡜⡎⠃⠀⠳⣝⡄⢠⠇⢻⢉⣷
411
+ ⠀⠀⠀⠘⢆⠀⠑⢦⣀⡀⠈⠓⠚⠁⢀⣀⣤⣊⣠⢾⡀⢠⣿⠃ 0.7.2 plan · approve · build · review
412
+ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠓⢄⠀⠀⠉⣉⣭⣭⣉⠉⠀⠈⢀⣠⢔⡩⠥⢥⡀ ~/Projects/app
413
+ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⡇⠀⡞⠁⠀⠀⠈⢳⠀⢰⣍⣠⠚⠧⡀⠀⡷ Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, OpenCode, Gemini CLI
414
+ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⡇⠀⣇⠀⠀⠀⠀⣸⠀⢠⡏⠀⠀⢀⣳⠞⠁
415
+ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠳⣀⣨⠥⠤⠶⠾⣅⣀⠞⠉⠉⠉⠉⠀⠀⠀
416
+
417
+ ╭─ Runs ──────────────────────────────────╮ ╭─ Backlog — 4 open ──────────────────────────╮
418
+ │ ● fix-discount waiting on you │ │ cart.py:12 low use > not >= │
419
+ │ ● cache-headers in review │ │ headline med legal review │
420
+ │ ● 3 done │ │ … 2 more │
421
+ ╰─────────────────────────────────────────╯ ╰─────────────────────────────────────────────╯
422
+
423
+ › All projects every project kaizen knows about
424
+ Runs
425
+ Backlog
426
+ Settings
427
+ Upgrade
428
+ Quit
429
+ ```
430
+
431
+ It monitors your runs and backlog across all your projects without having to open an agent.
432
+ Installing puts the `kaizen` command on your PATH, so updating later is:
433
+
434
+ ```bash
435
+ kaizen upgrade
436
+ ```
437
+
438
+ That pulls the latest workflow, relinks anything new, and clears the installer cache
439
+ `bunx` keeps — which is what otherwise leaves you on an old version without saying
440
+ so. `bunx kaizen-agent upgrade` does the same thing if you would rather not have the
441
+ command. `kaizen --version` prints what is installed; `bunx kaizen-agent --version`
442
+ prints what npm has.
443
+
444
+ Then, in any project, just ask for something:
445
+
446
+ ```
447
+ /kaizen <what you want done>
448
+ ```
449
+
450
+ The first run sets the project up on its own — a `.kaizen/` folder holding the run's
451
+ files. Nothing to initialise by hand. (`/kaizen-init` exists if you want to do it
452
+ ahead of time, and the installer offers it for the project you install from.)
453
+
454
+ Setup also adds a short section to the project's `CLAUDE.md`, so you can stop typing
455
+ `/kaizen` entirely — ask for something the normal way and work worth a plan goes
456
+ through the stages on its own. It draws the line at work worth a plan: a change
457
+ across more than one file, anything with a migration or a rollback, a document
458
+ someone else will act on. Questions and one-line fixes are answered, not staged.
459
+ Delete that section to go back to `/kaizen` being explicit.
460
+
461
+ That is the whole thing. Everything below is detail.
462
+
463
+ ## How a run goes
464
+
465
+ | | Stage | What happens |
466
+ |---|---|---|
467
+ | 1 | **Plan** | Reads your request and the existing material, writes a plan. Changes nothing. |
468
+ | 2 | **You approve** | You see the plan and the work list. Say yes, or say what to change. |
469
+ | 3 | **Build** | Does the work, then proves it — runs the tests, checks the claim against its source, walks the steps — and records what actually came back. |
470
+ | 4 | **Review** | A different agent, which never saw stage 3's reasoning, checks the work and lists what is wrong, numbered and graded. |
471
+ | 5 | **Fix** | Serious findings get fixed and re-checked, up to a limit. Anything left over is handed to you, never quietly dropped. |
472
+
473
+ Each stage runs as its own agent with a clean slate, and writes a file before the
474
+ next one starts. That is what makes stage 4 worth anything: a reviewer that watched
475
+ itself do the work will defend it.
476
+
477
+ Stage 3 is the one you can move. Set `build.executor` to `inline` and the agent you
478
+ are already talking to does the work — you watch each step and can interrupt — or
479
+ leave it as `subagent` and it is handed off and reported back, which keeps your
480
+ conversation short and is the only workable choice on a big run. Set it to `ask` to
481
+ be offered the choice each time you approve a plan. Stage 4 does not move: the
482
+ reviewer is a separate agent either way, because that is the whole reason its
483
+ findings are worth reading.
484
+
485
+ ## How it knows what kind of work this is
486
+
487
+ kaizen is not a software workflow. The same five stages hold for a book chapter, a
488
+ launch email, a migration runbook, or a research memo — what changes is what
489
+ *deliverable*, *done*, and *wrong* mean.
490
+
491
+ Each run works that out for itself — its **track** — by answering three questions
492
+ from your request:
493
+
494
+ - **What is the deliverable?** A merged change, a chapter, a landing page, a runbook.
495
+ - **What counts as done?** Tests pass. The chapter reads end to end. A colleague can
496
+ follow the runbook unaided.
497
+ - **What would make it wrong?** A security hole. A claim that is not true. A step
498
+ that silently loses data.
499
+
500
+ The third answer is what the reviewer becomes. A reviewer hunting race conditions in
501
+ a book manuscript is worse than no reviewer at all, and the track is what prevents
502
+ it. You are never asked to categorise your own request — it reads the request and
503
+ tells you what it concluded, so you correct a sentence instead of filling in a form.
504
+
505
+ ## Commands
506
+
507
+ | Command | What it does |
508
+ |---|---|
509
+ | `/kaizen <request>` | Start a run |
510
+ | `/kaizen-plan <request>` | Plan only — stop before anything is built |
511
+ | `/kaizen-auto <request>` | No approval stops; report at the end |
512
+ | `/kaizen-lite <request>` | Every stage in this session — cheap, and the reviewer has seen the work |
513
+ | `/kaizen-full <request>` | Every stage its own cold agent — the independent review |
514
+ | `/kaizen-review [target]` | Review something that already exists |
515
+ | `/kaizen-status` | What is waiting on you, in flight, done |
516
+ | `/kaizen-approve` | Approve whatever the run is waiting on |
517
+ | `/kaizen-reject <reason>` | Send it back with a reason, or kill the run |
518
+ | `/kaizen-run` | Carry on with an approved plan |
519
+ | `/kaizen-backlog` | Everything noticed but not done, across all runs |
520
+ | `/kaizen-abort` | Abandon the current run |
521
+ | `/kaizen-config` | Show this project's settings and change them |
522
+ | `/kaizen-init` | Set up the current project — optional, the first run does it |
523
+ | `/kaizen-help` | The full card |
524
+
525
+ ## What it writes
526
+
527
+ Everything a run knows lives in files next to the work, not in a chat window:
528
+
529
+ ```
530
+ .kaizen/
531
+ memory.md # what past reviews learned about this project
532
+ runs/2026-09-07-onboarding-email/
533
+ 00-request.md # what you asked, word for word
534
+ 01-plan.md # the plan you approved
535
+ 02-approval.md # what you decided, and why
536
+ 03-impl.md # what changed, and the proof it works
537
+ 04-review.md # findings, numbered and graded
538
+ 06-backlog.md # what was noticed but not done
539
+ ```
540
+
541
+ Plain files, so you can read them, commit them, and pick a run back up tomorrow —
542
+ or in another tool. kaizen also runs under Codex and Antigravity, and a run started
543
+ in one can be finished in another. See [adapters.md](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/adapters.md).
544
+
545
+ ## Settings
546
+
547
+ `~/.kaizen/config.yml` — one file, every project. The three worth knowing:
548
+
549
+ | Setting | Default | Meaning |
550
+ |---|---|---|
551
+ | `mode` | `approve` | `approve` stops for you; `auto` never does; `plan-only` stops after the plan |
552
+ | `runner` | `full` | `full` gives each stage its own agent, so the reviewer never saw the work — several times the cost. `lite` runs every stage here, at about the cost of doing it by hand |
553
+ | `build.executor` | `subagent` | Who does the work: a separate agent, `inline` in the current one, or `ask` each time |
554
+ | `auto_fix.min_severity` | `high` | Findings this bad or worse get fixed without asking |
555
+ | `approvals.plan` | `true` | Stop and show the plan before anything is built |
556
+ | `ui.mouse` | `false` | Click to select, click again to act; while on, the terminal cannot select text |
557
+ | `subagents.model` | `inherit` | Model the stage subagents run on: `inherit`, `opus`, `sonnet`, `haiku` (Claude Code only) |
558
+ | `agent.<cmd>.model`, `agent.<cmd>.effort` | — | Model/effort the board launches a session with, per tool: `claude`, `codex`, `agy`, `opencode`, `gemini`. Model names are the tool's own (`agy models`) |
559
+ | `subagents.effort` | `inherit` | Reasoning effort for the stage subagents: `inherit`, `low`, `medium`, `high` (Claude Code only) |
560
+
561
+ ```bash
562
+ kaizen settings
563
+ ```
564
+
565
+ opens a full-screen browser over the whole file — arrows to move and change, every
566
+ change written as you make it, esc to close:
567
+
568
+ ```
569
+ kaizen settings ~/.kaizen/config.yml
570
+
571
+ › preset medium
572
+ mode approve
573
+ runner full
574
+ build.executor subagent
575
+ approvals.plan true
576
+ approvals.review false
577
+ auto_fix.enabled true
578
+ auto_fix.min_severity high
579
+ auto_fix.max_iterations 2
580
+ ...
581
+
582
+ Quick preset — low: inline & manual, medium: balanced, ultra: autonomous subagents
583
+
584
+ ↑↓ move · ←→ change · esc close saved preset = medium
585
+ ```
586
+
587
+ One project can differ: put a `.kaizen/config.yml` in it with just the keys to
588
+ override, and it wins there while everything else follows the global file.
589
+ It edits each line in place, so the comment above every key survives. `/kaizen-config`
590
+ does the same thing from inside your agent if you would rather not leave it. Everything is also
591
+ in [`config.default.yml`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/config.default.yml),
592
+ with a comment on each key, if you would rather edit the file.
593
+
594
+ ## Under the hood
595
+
596
+ - [`SKILL.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/SKILL.md) — how the workflow behaves
597
+ - [`spec.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/spec.md) — the tool-neutral contract every stage follows
598
+ - [`adapters.md`](https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen/blob/main/skills/kaizen/adapters.md) — running it under Codex or Antigravity
599
+
600
+ <details>
601
+ <summary>Installer flags, updating, and installing without bun</summary>
602
+
603
+ | Flag | Effect |
604
+ |---|---|
605
+ | *(none)* | Ask when standing in a project, otherwise install globally |
606
+ | `--global` | Globally, no question asked |
607
+ | `--project` | Into the current directory only |
608
+ | `--check` | Report what is linked, exit non-zero if anything is missing |
609
+ | `--force` | Replace a real file sitting where a link belongs |
610
+ | `--preset <name>` | Pre-select workflow preset (`low`, `medium`, or `ultra`) |
611
+ | `--yes` | Take every default, ask nothing |
612
+ | `--verbose` | List every link instead of a one-line summary |
613
+ | `upgrade` | Pull, relink, and clear the installer cache. No prompts. |
614
+ | `uninstall` | Remove the links, the clone, and the launcher. Asks whether to keep your runs and settings. |
615
+ | `uninstall --purge` | The same, and delete `~/.kaizen` and this project's `.kaizen/` too. |
616
+ | `settings` | Open the settings browser for the nearest `.kaizen/`. Also `config`. |
617
+
618
+ Uninstalling works the same on Linux, macOS and Windows — `kaizen uninstall`, or
619
+ `bunx kaizen-agent uninstall` when the command itself is already gone. It offers three
620
+ answers — keep your runs and settings, remove everything, or cancel — and takes the
621
+ first without asking when the output is not a terminal. It lists what it removed; the `## Kaizen workflow` line in each project's `CLAUDE.md` is left for
622
+ you to delete, since you may have edited around it.
623
+
624
+ A global install also writes `~/.local/bin/kaizen` (`kaizen.cmd` in bun's bin
625
+ directory on Windows), a two-line launcher pointing at
626
+ the clone, so `kaizen upgrade` works from anywhere. It tells you if that directory is
627
+ not on your PATH. `uninstall` removes it; `--project` installs skip it.
628
+
629
+ Re-running is safe: correct links are left alone.
630
+
631
+ `bunx` extracts a package once and reuses it without re-resolving, so a plain
632
+ `bunx kaizen-agent` can keep running an old installer even after a new one is
633
+ published. `upgrade` clears that copy, so the next run resolves fresh. The workflow
634
+ itself — skills, agents, commands — comes from the clone and updates on any run.
635
+
636
+ To work on kaizen itself, install from your own checkout so the links point at it:
637
+
638
+ ```bash
639
+ git clone https://github.com/hfadhlullah/kaizen.git ~/kaizen
640
+ cd ~/kaizen && bun run cli/install.ts
641
+ ```
642
+
643
+ Without bun:
644
+
645
+ ```bash
646
+ mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills ~/.claude/agents ~/.claude/commands
647
+ ln -s ~/kaizen/skills/kaizen ~/.claude/skills/kaizen
648
+ ln -s ~/kaizen/skills/kaizen-help ~/.claude/skills/kaizen-help
649
+ for f in ~/kaizen/agents/kaizen-*.md; do ln -s "$f" ~/.claude/agents/"$(basename "$f")"; done
650
+ for f in ~/kaizen/commands/kaizen-*.md; do ln -s "$f" ~/.claude/commands/"$(basename "$f")"; done
651
+ ```
652
+
653
+ </details>
654
+
655
+ ## License
656
+
657
+ MIT. *Kaizen (改善) is Japanese for continuous improvement — small changes, checked
658
+ as you go.*