Stepwise Dev - Multi-Plugin Suite
A modular development workflow suite for Claude Code inspired by Ashley Ha's workflow, adapted to work 100% locally with thoughts.
📖 Read more: Tu CLAUDE.md no funciona sin Context Engineering (Spanish article about Stepwise-dev)
🎯 What This Is
Solves the context management problem: LLMs lose attention after 60% context usage.
Implements Research → Plan → Implement → Validate with frequent /clear and persistent thoughts/ storage.
Philosophy
- Keep context < 60% (attention threshold)
- Split work into phases
- Clear between phases, save to
thoughts/ - Never lose research or decisions
📦 Available Plugins
This repository contains 4 independent plugins that can be installed separately based on your needs:
1. stepwise-core (Core Workflow)
The foundation plugin with the complete Research → Plan → Implement → Validate cycle.
Includes:
- 5 slash commands (
research_codebase,create_plan,iterate_plan,implement_plan,validate_plan) - 5 specialized agents (codebase exploration and thoughts management)
- 1 thoughts-management skill (with 3 bash scripts)
2. stepwise-git (Git Operations)
Clean git commit workflow without Claude attribution.
Includes:
- 1 slash command (
commit) - Smart staging and commit message generation
3. stepwise-web (Web Research)
Web search and research capabilities for external context.
Includes:
- 1 specialized agent (
web-search-researcher) - Deep web research with source citations
4. stepwise-research (Multi-Agent Deep Research)
Advanced multi-agent research system with parallel web searches and synthesis.
Includes:
- 1 slash command (
deep_research) - 3 specialized agents (research-lead, research-worker, citation-analyst)
- 1 research-reports skill (with report generation script)
- Comprehensive research reports with citations and metadata
🚀 Installation
Option 1: Install All Plugins (Recommended for first-time users)
# Add marketplace from GitHub
/plugin marketplace add nikeyes/stepwise-dev
# Install all plugins
/plugin install stepwise-core@stepwise-dev
/plugin install stepwise-git@stepwise-dev
/plugin install stepwise-web@stepwise-dev
/plugin install stepwise-research@stepwise-dev
Option 2: Install Only What You Need
# Add marketplace
/plugin marketplace add nikeyes/stepwise-dev
# Install only the core workflow
/plugin install stepwise-core@stepwise-dev
# Optionally add git operations
/plugin install stepwise-git@stepwise-dev
# Optionally add web research
/plugin install stepwise-web@stepwise-dev
# Optionally add multi-agent deep research
/plugin install stepwise-research@stepwise-dev
Restart Claude Code after installation.
🧪 Try It Out
Don't have a project to test with? Use stepwise-todo-api-test — a sample repository designed for testing these plugins.
📁 Directory Structure
After running thoughts-init (from stepwise-core) in a project:
<your-project>/
├── thoughts/
│ ├── nikey_es/ # Your personal notes (you write)
│ │ ├── tickets/ # Ticket documentation
│ │ └── notes/ # Personal notes
│ ├── shared/ # Team-shared documents (Claude writes)
│ │ ├── research/ # Research documents
│ │ ├── plans/ # Implementation plans
│ │ └── prs/ # PR descriptions
│ └── searchable/ # Hardlinks for grep (auto-generated)
│ ├── nikey_es/ # → hardlinks to nikey_es/
│ └── shared/ # → hardlinks to shared/
├── .gitignore # (add thoughts/searchable/ to this)
└── ...
Key distinction:
nikey_es/: Personal tickets/notes you create manuallyshared/: Formal docs Claude generates from commands
Why Hardlinks?
- Fast searching: Grep one directory instead of many
- No duplication: Same file, same inode, no extra disk space
- Auto-sync: Changes in source are immediately visible
- Efficient: Better than symlinks for grep operations
🔄 The Four-Phase Workflow
Phase 1: Research (stepwise-core)
/stepwise-core:research_codebase How does authentication work?
Spawns parallel agents, searches codebase and thoughts/, generates comprehensive research document.