Why Decapod 🧠
AI coding agents are strong at generating code. Most failures happen before and after generation: unclear intent, fuzzy boundaries, and weak completion checks.
Decapod is the missing layer in that loop. Agents call it mid-run to lock intent, enforce boundaries, and prove completion with explicit gates. It shapes inference without doing inference.
Decapod is daemonless. There is no long-lived service. The binary starts when an agent calls it and exits immediately after the call.
"Just use Decapod" is literal:
cargo install decapoddecapod init
Then continue with Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, or any tool that can invoke a CLI command. Decapod is agent-agnostic and safe for concurrent multi-agent execution.
State is local and durable in .decapod/: shared context, decisions, and traces persist across sessions and remain retrievable over time.
Related: Evaluating AGENTS.md (ETH SRI, 2026) on context-file quality and agent cost/performance.
Getting Started 🚀
cargo install decapod
decapod init
Then keep using your agents normally. Decapod is called from inside those agent runs when control-plane decisions are needed.
Agent integration: If you use Claude Code / Codex / Gemini / Cursor / similar tools, see AGENTS.md and the tool-specific entrypoint files (CLAUDE.md, CODEX.md, GEMINI.md) for the exact operational contract.
Learn more about the embedded constitution.
Override constitution defaults with plain English in .decapod/OVERRIDE.md after you initilaize Decapod in your project directory.
Assurance Model ✅
Decapod centers execution around three outcomes:
Advisory: clear next actions that tighten intent and reduce wasted loops.Interlock: hard policy boundaries that block unsafe or out-of-contract flow.Attestation: durable, structured proof that completion criteria actually passed.
Operating Model ⚙️
Human Intent
|
v
AI Agent(s) <----> Decapod Runtime <----> Repository + Policy
| | |
| | +-- Interlock (enforced boundaries)
| +------- Advisory (guided execution)
+------------ Attestation (verifiable outcomes)
Features ✨
- ✅ Daemonless execution: no background agent manager, no hidden runtime.
- ✅ Two-command adoption:
cargo install decapodanddecapod init. - ✅ Agent-agnostic contract: one CLI/RPC surface across Claude, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, and others.
- ✅ Parallel-safe collaboration: multiple agents can operate in one repo without state collisions.
- ✅ Work Unit governance:
intent/spec/state/proofis explicit, durable, and machine-checkable. - ✅ VERIFIED is enforced: completion requires passing proof-plan results, not narrative claims.
- ✅ Promotion discipline: validate-time and publish-time gates block silent regressions.
- ✅ Deterministic context capsules: scoped (
core|interfaces|plugins), hashable, and reproducible. - ✅ Variance-aware eval kernel: repeat-run plans, strict judge contracts, statistical regression gates.
- ✅ Knowledge promotion firewall: procedural truth requires event-backed provenance in
.decapod/data/knowledge.promotions.jsonl. - ✅ Shared transient aptitude memory: capture human-taught preferences once, reuse across agents and sessions.
- ✅ Plain-English policy control in
.decapod/OVERRIDE.md. - ✅ Local-first auditability:
.decapod/keeps durable traces, decisions, and proof artifacts.
And dozens more. For the full high-level and data-level surface area, see decapod docs show core/INTERFACES.md and the override template at .decapod/OVERRIDE.md.
Contributing 🤝
Documentation 📚
- Development guide: CONTRIBUTING.md
- Security policy: SECURITY.md
- Release history: CHANGELOG.md
Support 💖
License 📄
MIT. See LICENSE.