ADD — Agent Driven Development
AI agents write code fast. Without structure, they ship chaos.
ADD is coordinated agent swarms — test-writers, implementers, reviewers, deployers — that ship verified software as a team. Spec-driven. Test-first. Independently verified. Human-validated.
Website · Install · Quick Start · Agent Teams · Human-in-the-Loop · For PMs · Learning
The Problem
AI code generation has changed how software gets built, but development practices haven't kept up. Developers and agents operate without structure, leading to specification drift, unpredictable quality, lost knowledge, and unclear handoffs.
ADD brings discipline to AI-native development the same way TDD brought discipline to testing.
What is Agent Driven Development?
TDD gave us tests before code. BDD gave us behavior before tests. ADD gives us coordinated agent teams before everything.
ADD is a structured SDLC methodology where AI agents do the development work — writing tests, implementing features, reviewing code, deploying — while humans architect, decide, and verify the user experience. It's not a tool. It's a way of working.
The six principles:
- Specs before code — Every feature starts as a specification. No spec, no code.
- Tests before implementation — Strict TDD: RED → GREEN → REFACTOR → VERIFY.
- Trust but verify — Sub-agents work autonomously. Orchestrators independently verify. Humans validate UX via screenshots.
- Structured collaboration — Interviews, away mode, decision points — humans and agents have clear protocols.
- Environment awareness — Skills adapt to where you're deploying: local, staging, or production.
- Continuous learning — Agents accumulate knowledge. Retrospectives propagate lessons across projects.
Install
Marketplace (recommended):
claude plugin marketplace add MountainUnicorn/add
claude plugin install add@add-marketplace
Source install:
claude plugin install --source https://github.com/MountainUnicorn/add
Update an existing install:
claude plugin update add@add-marketplace
No runtime dependencies. No build step. ADD is pure markdown and JSON — it runs entirely within Claude Code's plugin system.
Quick Start
1. Initialize your project
/add:init
ADD interviews you about your project (product vision, tech stack, team size, deployment model) and scaffolds the project structure. Takes about 5 minutes.
What gets created:
your-project/
├── .add/
│ ├── config.json # Project configuration
│ ├── learnings.md # Agent knowledge base
│ └── cycles/ # Work cycle tracking
├── docs/
│ ├── prd.md # Product Requirements Document
│ ├── plans/ # Implementation plans
│ └── milestones/ # Milestone tracking
├── specs/ # Feature specifications
└── CLAUDE.md # Project context for Claude
2. Create a feature specification
/add:spec "user authentication"
ADD runs a structured interview (6-10 questions, ~5 min) and generates a complete feature specification with acceptance criteria, test cases, data models, and edge cases.
3. Plan the implementation
/add:plan specs/user-authentication.md
Transforms the spec into an actionable implementation plan with task breakdown, effort estimation, dependency mapping, and risk assessment.
4. Build with TDD
/add:tdd-cycle specs/user-authentication.md
Executes the full TDD cycle: writes failing tests from the spec (RED), implements minimal code to pass them (GREEN), refactors for quality, then independently verifies everything.
5. Verify and validate
/add:verify
Runs up to 5 levels of quality checks: lint, type checking, unit tests, coverage, and spec compliance. For UI projects, humans validate the user experience via screenshot review.
6. Deploy
/add:deploy
Environment-aware deployment with pre-deploy verification and post-deploy smoke tests.
Coordinated Agent Teams
ADD doesn't use a single agent. It dispatches specialized sub-agents — each with scoped tool permissions — then independently verifies their work. Trust but verify.