pact-plugin

PACT — Orchestration Harness for Claude Code

Stop vibe coding. Start orchestrating. PACT turns a single Claude Code session into a managed team of specialist AI agents that prepare, design, build, and test your code systematically.

The Problem

You ask Claude Code to build a feature. It starts coding immediately — no research, no design, no plan. Halfway through, it loses context and starts guessing. You end up with code that sort of works but wasn't thought through.

This is vibe coding: one AI trying to do everything at once, with no structure and no memory.

The Solution

PACT turns one AI into a coordinated dev team. Instead of a single Claude guessing at everything, 12 specialist agents each handle what they're best at — research, architecture, implementation, testing — through a systematic Prepare, Architect, Code, Test cycle.

Without PACT	With PACT
AI starts coding immediately	Research and planning happen first
Context lost mid-task	Each specialist gets a fresh context window
One agent guesses at everything	Dedicated researchers, architects, coders, testers
No memory between sessions	Persistent memory system across sessions
Same mistakes repeated	Lessons learned are captured and reused

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Quick Start

Prerequisite: PACT requires Agent Teams, which is experimental and disabled by default. Add "CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS": "1" to the "env" section of your ~/.claude/settings.json before installing.

1. Install the plugin

/plugin marketplace add ProfSynapse/PACT-prompt
/plugin install PACT@pact-marketplace

2. Set up the orchestrator (detailed options below)

cp ~/.claude/plugins/cache/pact-marketplace/PACT/*/CLAUDE.md ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

3. Allow team file access (prevents permission prompts during agent operations)

Add team directory access and PACT permission allow rules to your ~/.claude/settings.json — see Enabling Agent Teams for the full settings block.

4. Restart Claude Code and go

/PACT:orchestrate Build user authentication with JWT

See full installation for all options including auto-updates.

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See It In Action

Simplified for illustration. Actual output varies by task and project.

Building a Feature from Scratch

You:   "I need user authentication with JWT tokens"

PACT:  [PREPARE]   Researching JWT best practices, library options, security patterns...
       [ARCHITECT]  Designing auth flow, token structure, middleware, refresh strategy...
       [CODE]       Backend coder implementing AuthService, JWT middleware, token rotation...
       [TEST]       Test engineer verifying login, refresh, expiration, edge cases...

Result: Production-ready auth system — researched, designed, built, and tested.

Quick Fix with a Single Specialist

You:   /PACT:comPACT backend Fix the null check in validateToken

PACT:  [Backend Coder] Analyzed the issue, fixed null check, added guard clause,
       verified build passes. Done.

Planning Before Building

You:   /PACT:plan-mode Design a caching strategy for our API

PACT:  [Preparer]  Researching Redis vs Memcached vs in-memory options...
       [Architect]  Designing cache invalidation strategy, TTL policies...
       [Database]   Analyzing query patterns for optimal cache keys...

       Plan saved to docs/plans/api-caching-plan.md — ready for your approval.

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How It Works

The PACT Cycle

Every task flows through four phases, each handled by the right specialist:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    /PACT:orchestrate                        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                             │
│   PREPARE ──► ARCHITECT ──► CODE ──► TEST                   │
│      │            │           │         │                   │
│      ▼            ▼           ▼         ▼                   │
│   Research    Design      Implement   Verify                │
│   Docs        Blueprint   Backend     Unit tests            │
│   APIs        Contracts   Frontend    Integration           │
│   Context     Schema      Database    E2E tests             │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The orchestrator manages the cycle, delegating each phase to the appropriate specialist. Simple tasks get light process (/PACT:comPACT); complex tasks get the full ceremony (/PACT:orchestrate). PACT scales its rigor to match the complexity of the work.

The Specialist Team