conductor

Conductor

Measure twice, code once.

Conductor enables Context-Driven Development for AI coding assistants. It turns your AI assistant into a proactive project manager that follows a strict protocol to specify, plan, and implement software features and bug fixes.

Works with: Gemini CLI | Claude Code | Agent Skills compatible CLIs

Instead of just writing code, Conductor ensures a consistent, high-quality lifecycle for every task: Context -> Spec & Plan -> Implement.

The philosophy behind Conductor is simple: control your code. By treating context as a managed artifact alongside your code, you transform your repository into a single source of truth that drives every agent interaction with deep, persistent project awareness.

Features

• Plan before you build: Create specs and plans that guide the agent for new and existing codebases.
• Maintain context: Ensure AI follows style guides, tech stack choices, and product goals.
• Iterate safely: Review plans before code is written, keeping you firmly in the loop.
• Work as a team: Set project-level context for your product, tech stack, and workflow preferences that become a shared foundation for your team.
• Build on existing projects: Intelligent initialization for both new (Greenfield) and existing (Brownfield) projects.
• Smart revert: A git-aware revert command that understands logical units of work (tracks, phases, tasks) rather than just commit hashes.

Installation

Gemini CLI

gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/conductor --auto-update

Claude Code

From marketplace (recommended):

# Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add jasonkneen/conductor

# Install the plugin
/plugin install conductor

Manual installation:

# Clone and copy commands/skills to your global config
git clone https://github.com/jasonkneen/conductor.git
cp -r conductor/.claude/commands/* ~/.claude/commands/
cp -r conductor/.claude/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

This installs 5 slash commands and a skill that auto-activates for conductor projects.

Agent Skills

For CLIs supporting the Agent Skills specification, point to:

skills/conductor/
├── SKILL.md
└── references/
    └── workflows.md

Project-Local Installation

Copy to any project for project-scoped Claude Code support:

cp -r /path/to/conductor/.claude your-project/

Usage

Conductor is designed to manage the entire lifecycle of your development tasks.

Note on Token Consumption: Conductor's context-driven approach involves reading and analyzing your project's context, specifications, and plans. This can lead to increased token consumption, especially in larger projects or during extensive planning and implementation phases. You can check the token consumption in the current session by running /stats model.

1. Set Up the Project (Run Once)

When you run /conductor:setup, Conductor helps you define the core components of your project context. This context is then used for building new components or features by you or anyone on your team.

• Product: Define project context (e.g. users, product goals, high-level features).
• Product guidelines: Define standards (e.g. prose style, brand messaging, visual identity).
• Tech stack: Configure technical preferences (e.g. language, database, frameworks).
• Workflow: Set team preferences (e.g. TDD, commit strategy). Uses workflow.md as a customizable template.

Generated Artifacts:

• conductor/product.md
• conductor/product-guidelines.md
• conductor/tech-stack.md
• conductor/workflow.md
• conductor/code_styleguides/
• conductor/tracks.md

/conductor:setup

2. Start a New Track (Feature or Bug)

When you’re ready to take on a new feature or bug fix, run /conductor:newTrack. This initializes a track — a high-level unit of work. Conductor helps you generate two critical artifacts:

• Specs: The detailed requirements for the specific job. What are we building and why?
• Plan: An actionable to-do list containing phases, tasks, and sub-tasks.

Generated Artifacts:

• conductor/tracks/<track_id>/spec.md
• conductor/tracks/<track_id>/plan.md
• conductor/tracks/<track_id>/metadata.json

/conductor:newTrack
# OR with a description
/conductor:newTrack "Add a dark mode toggle to the settings page"

3. Implement the Track

Once you approve the plan, run /conductor:implement. Your coding agent then works through the plan.md file, checking off tasks as it completes them.

Updated Artifacts:

• conductor/tracks.md (Status updates)
• conductor/tracks/<track_id>/plan.md (Status updates)
• Project context files (Synchronized on completion)

/conductor:implement