AB Method

A workflow system for Claude Code and Codex. It grills a problem into a domain-grounded plan, then either drives it through test-driven missions you review one at a time, or hands it to an autonomous /goal loop that runs to a verifiable stop condition.

Install

npx ab-method

The installer detects .claude/ and/or .agents/ and installs slash commands and skills for Claude Code, Codex, or both (it asks if neither exists). It also adds .ab-method/ (workflow definitions and the path index), docs/ scaffolding, AGENTS.md for Codex, and optional subagents for Claude Code.

Or as a plugin

Nothing is copied into your project; the plugin updates on its own.

# Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add ayoubben18/ab-method
/plugin install ab-method@ab-method

# Codex
codex plugin marketplace add ayoubben18/ab-method
codex plugin add ab-method@ab-method

Skills are namespaced ab-method:<name>: run /ab-method:ab-create-task (Claude Code) or $ab-method:ab-create-task (Codex), or describe what you want. A project's own .ab-method/structure/index.yaml overrides the bundled one. The plugin ships no slash commands or subagents. Don't combine it with npx ab-method in one project, or every workflow shows up twice.

Commands

On Claude Code, run a workflow as a slash command. Codex has no shared slash commands, so use the matching skill ($ab-create-task) or describe your intent.

Command	Purpose
/mastermind	Entry point: routes your intent to the right workflow
/create-task	Grill a problem into a task with test-driven missions
/resume-task	Continue a task from its progress tracker
/start-task	Run a task autonomously, one subagent and one commit per mission
/extend-task	Add missions to an existing task
/create-task-from-handoff	Turn a tangent parked mid-grill into a task
/create-goal	Write a prompt for an autonomous /goal loop
/extend-goal	Extend a goal from what its run built
/create-roadmap	Split a bigger idea into a dependency-ordered graph of tasks
/start-roadmap	Run a planned roadmap in dependency order
/test-mission	Add tests to code that wasn't written test-first
/analyze-project	Document domain, tech stack and patterns (/analyze-frontend, /analyze-backend for one side)
/update-architecture	Refresh architecture and domain docs
/ab-cleanup	Compact docs to budget and remove task leftovers; also the 3.x → 4.0 migration
/ab-master [name]	List workflows, or run one by name

Task, goal or roadmap? A task keeps you in the loop mission by mission. A goal is one objective with a checkable stop condition, run unattended. A roadmap is several ordered tasks; it can leave open decisions and uncharted areas for later.

How it works

1. Always grill. Every task and goal starts with grill-with-docs, which checks your terms against UBIQUITOUS_LANGUAGE.md and CONTEXT.md and records decisions as ADRs.
2. Plan before code. Each task gets a test plan, a placement decision per capability (reuse, extend or extract), and, for new UI, a throwaway HTML prototype with several variants to pick from.
3. Test what matters. verify: test missions run through the tdd skill; verify: build missions (styling, wiring, config) rely on typecheck, build and the existing suite.
4. Critics on both sides. critique-plan checks the plan against the domain model before coding; review-implementation and sync-architecture check the diff and the docs after. They stay silent unless there is a real problem.
5. Measure the blast radius. change-map predicts which modules a task will touch, then compares that with the real diff.
6. Park, don't guess. A question nobody can answer yet goes in unresolved-questions.md with a placeholder behind one seam (TODO(UQ-n)); a tangent becomes a handoff.
7. Small docs. Domain and architecture docs have word budgets, hold only current state, and are checked by npx ab-method check-docs.
8. Parallel only when you agree. Missions and roadmap tasks run sequentially unless you allow tagging them for parallel subagents.

File layout

.ab-method/
  core/                  Workflow definitions
  rules/                 Communication, code and docs rules for every workflow
  structure/index.yaml   Paths, outputs and doc budgets (all configurable)

UBIQUITOUS_LANGUAGE.md   Domain glossary
CONTEXT.md               Bounded-context overview

docs/
  architecture/          tech-stack.md, frontend/ and backend/ pattern topics
  adr/                   Decision records
  tasks/<task>/          progress-tracker.md, change-map.md, review.md, ...
  goals/<goal>/          goal.md + progress-tracker.md
  handoffs/              Tangents awaiting their own task

Upgrading to 4.0

Existing trackers keep working. After updating, run /ab-cleanup once: on its own branch it migrates index.yaml, splits pattern docs into topics, compacts oversized docs (listing what it drops), and, with your approval, removes leftovers from completed tasks.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for developing the plugin.