the-bulwark

The Bulwark

SDLC governance & enforcement for Claude Code.
Turn stochastic AI output into engineering-grade artifacts.

Install · Workflows · Docs · How it works · Roadmap

Latest stable release: v1.3.0

v1.3.0 (2026-06-23) — Fewer prompts, sharper reviews. This release cuts permission-prompt friction and makes code review smarter about what it's reviewing. Every bundled skill and agent now pre-authorizes exactly the tools it needs, so routine operations stop interrupting you for approval. The code-review skill is now language-aware — it detects each changed file's language and runs only the checks that apply, backed by universal per-language recipes that skip gracefully when a tool isn't installed. And a new opt-in permission hook (off by default) can auto-approve tool calls scoped to Bulwark's own bundled files, for users who want an even quieter workflow.

See the v1.3.0 release notes and the full CHANGELOG.

What is The Bulwark?

The Bulwark is a Claude Code plugin that adds automated quality enforcement to your development workflow. It ships 30 skills, 15 custom agents, and 8 hooks that run programmatic checks on every code change you make.

Claude Code is remarkably capable on its own — but capability without consistency is a problem. Without guardrails you get code that skips type checks, reviews that miss issues a single pass can't cover, test suites full of mocks that verify calls instead of behavior, and estimates that vary wildly between sessions. The Bulwark makes enforcement automatic: hooks run quality checks after every write, skills orchestrate single-focus multi-agent pipelines, and rules are injected at session start and enforced throughout. You don't have to remember to ask Claude to run tests or check types — it just happens.

Who it's for: builders who want to stay in the driver's seat while giving Claude semi-autonomy over structured workflows; teams that need repeatable, auditable AI-assisted development; users on Claude Max or Enterprise plans (the multi-agent pipelines are token-intensive — Pro Plus works for single-agent skills but hits rate limits on pipelines).

→ For the design (defense-in-depth, multi-agent pipelines), see How it works and architecture.md.

Quick install

Two ways to install. Pick whichever works for you.

# Option A — npm
claude /plugin install npm:@qball-inc/the-bulwark

# Option B — marketplace (one-time add, then install)
claude /plugin marketplace add QBall-Inc/plugins-market
claude /plugin install the-bulwark@qball-inc

After installing, restart your session and run the guided setup:

/the-bulwark:init

This walks you through Rules.md injection, CLAUDE.md configuration, and optional tooling (LSP, Justfile scaffolding, statusline), auto-detecting brownfield projects.

Full walkthrough + prerequisites: Getting started.

Trouble installing? See the FAQ.

Adoption