doctrine-0.5.1 is not a library.

Doctrine

Doctrine is an opinionated but hackable set of tools and conventions for software engineering with LLM agents.

HERESIS URITUR; DOCTRINA MANET.

Heresy burns; Doctrine remains.

Design Goals:

Correctness
Laziness
Hackability
Efficiency

DX for solo developers, teams
time and token efficiency
suitability for systems of any size & complexity profile
useful support for "pre-rational" stages of specification (e.g. product design, backlog)
quality engineering: robust auditability; formal verification gates
separation of structured, relational data from prose
separation of mutable, disposable state from useful artifacts
thoughfully designed memory retrieval, relevance & decay
composability; provide "orchestration primitives"
avoidance of vendor lockin
single binary distribution
more with less: focused ambition, not minimalism.

Non-Goals

SaaS integration (in core)
Windows support (for now)
Integrated TUI (for now)

Installation

cargo install doctrine

cd my_project || mkdir my_project

doctrine install                  # prompts to confirm; or use --dry-run | --yes
npx skills add davidlee/doctrine  # or `doctrine install --agent claude` for claude code only

doctrine slice new "add killer feature"

or install from source (customise templates / skills):

gh repo clone davidlee/doctrine && cd doctrine

# optional: 
# customise install/templates and/or plugins/skills
# they'll get bundled into the binary for installation

cargo install --path .

or use it as a nix flake:

inputs.doctrine.url = "github:davidlee/doctrine";
# ...
doctrine = inputs.doctrine.packages.${system}.doctrine;

to install skills for other agents:

npx skills add davidlee/doctrine # or your fork

Setup


mkdir my-project && cd my-project
git init 
mkdir .claude 

doctrine install -y 
doctrine install --agent claude --yes # skills + dispatch-worker agent + SubagentStart hook into .claude
doctrine install --agent universal --yes

doctrine memory sync 

doctrine boot install # .claude/settings.local.json
doctrine boot install --agent codex # works for most 

cat .gitignore # check & adjust to taste

git add -A && git commit -m "chore: doctrine install"

Memory-only use

Use Doctrine's memory system with your preferred tooling for the rest:

cd my-project
doctrine install --agent claude --only-memory -y 

# doctrine memory help
# doctrine memory record --type pattern "red/green/refactor TDD" --glob "src/lib/**/*" --summary "..."
# doctrine memory list

Usage

doctrine slice new "add killer feature"

Doctrine ships with self-documenting agent memories.

The agent should be able to steer while you get used to the default workflow.

Hack

templates:

$EDITOR .doctrine/templates

skills:

rm .claude/skills/code-review # remove symlink
cp -r .doctrine/skills/code-review/ .claude/skills/

$EDITOR .claude/skills/code-review/SKILL.md
git add -f .claude/skills/code-review/SKILL.md

doctrine install # skips existing non-symlinks

or:

gh repo fork davidlee/doctrine --clone
cd doctrine
$EDITOR doctrine/plugins/review
git commit -m "feat: review like a pirate" && git push
cargo install --path .             # build with your edits

# in your projects
doctrine install --agent claude --yes # from binary, or
npx skills add my-github/doctrine

License

This repository is multi-licensed:

Rust source code, application code, and compiled binaries are licensed under GPL-3.0-only.
Files under plugins/ are licensed under MIT.
Files under install/ are licensed under MIT, including templates and config.toml.

Where a file contains an SPDX license identifier or a directory contains its own LICENSE file, that more specific notice controls.

Acknowledgements

The /worktree skill's directory-selection and safety-verification patterns are adapted from superpowers:using-git-worktrees by Jesse Vincent (MIT).

Specifications

Product and technical specifications — the durable, agent-readable intent behind Doctrine's capabilities. Regenerate this list with just readme-index.

doctrine 0.5.1