Open Manifold

Multi-agent development system for opencode with persistent knowledge.

A Lead Dev agent walks through a task plan, a deterministic plugin state machine orchestrates a Senior/Junior/Debug loop, and all decisions are logged to a persistent Manifold/ folder that compounds knowledge across the project.

Core principle: Deterministic orchestration + scoped LLM execution + persistent knowledge = agents that learn and don't repeat mistakes.

Two Ways to Install

Option A — npm package (Recommended)

1. Add "opencode-manifold" to your opencode.json plugins array:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "plugin": ["opencode-manifold"]
}

2. Run opencode. The plugin auto-installs and generates all required files on first session.

Option B — Local plugin files

1. Clone this repository
2. Copy src/ into your project's .opencode/plugins/ directory:

   cp -r src ~/.config/opencode/plugins/opencode-manifold/
   # OR copy into your project:
   mkdir -p .opencode/plugins
   cp -r src .opencode/plugins/opencode-manifold

3. Add to your opencode.json:

   {
     "plugin": ["/path/to/.opencode/plugins/opencode-manifold"]
   }

4. Run opencode. The plugin generates all required files on first session.

Quick Start

1. Install using one of the methods above
2. Create a plan — any format (markdown, TODO list, email, meeting notes)
3. Point the Lead Dev agent at your plan file and tell it to execute

The Lead Dev will:

• Extract tasks from your plan
• Dispatch each to the multi-agent system
• Log all decisions to Manifold/

Architecture

User → points to plan file (any format)
  │
Lead Dev
  Reads plan, extracts tasks, dispatches via dispatch_task tool
  │
  ▼
Plugin State Machine (TypeScript, zero LLM cost)
  │
  ├── Phase 1: Clerk research
  │     ├── codebase-index search + wiki lookback + graph entries
  │     ├── Composes scoped prompt
  │     └── Creates task log file
  │
  ├── Phase 2: Senior/Junior/Debug loop
  │     ├── Spawn Senior Dev → implementation
  │     ├── Spawn Junior Dev → review (first word: COMPLETE or QUESTIONS)
  │     ├── Loop up to 3×, then escalate to Debug
  │     └── Debug → one loop with Senior+Debug, then escalate to Clerk retry 
  │
  ├── Phase 3: Clerk logging
  │     ├── Appends design decisions to task log
  │     ├── Updates index.md, appends log.md, updates graph entries
  │     └── Returns to Lead Dev
  │
  └── Phase 4: Test (optional)
        ├── If test defined → run, check output
        └── If no test → complete

Agents

The sr/jr/debug loop enables cost-efficient workflows: a strong sr-dev paired with a cheaper junior for review, and a different model for debug (fresh perspective). The key is diversity between sr and debug, not raw power. Junior's role as reviewer means a smaller/cheaper model works well — the sr/jr loop catches most issues, and debug's different reasoning approach breaks deadlocks.

Example Configurations

Models change frequently. These examples prioritize sr/debug diversity and cost gradient.

Manifold Folder Structure

Manifold/
├── .obsidian/          # Makes it an Obsidian vault
├── index.md            # Catalog of all tasks
├── log.md              # Chronological append-only log
├── plans.json          # Plan registry
├── schema.md           # Wiki conventions
├── settings.json       # User-tunable parameters
├── state.json          # State machine persistence
├── tasks/              # Individual task logs
│   ├── share-cart-001.md
│   └── ...
└── graph/              # Document graph
    ├── src_middleware_auth_ts.md
    └── ...

Settings

Located at Manifold/settings.json:

Session Resumption

If a session crashes mid-loop:

• The Lead Dev reads the plan file
• Completed tasks are marked in index.md
• Lead Dev picks up from the first unmarked task
• The existing task log (created in Phase 1) shows partial work

No mid-loop state recovery needed — restart the task, the Clerk's research phase accounts for what was already done.

FAQ

Q: Do I need to configure agents? A: No. On first run, the plugin auto-generates agent definitions, skills, and configuration from built-in templates.

Q: Can I customize agents and skills? A: Yes. Edit the files in .opencode/agents/ and .opencode/skills/ after they're generated.

Q: What is the Clerk's role? A: The Clerk has full project sight. It researches context (codebase-index, wiki, graph), composes scoped prompts for workers, and maintains the wiki.

Q: What happens if Debug also fails? A: The Clerk gets one retry with full failure context. If that also fails, the task escalates to you.

Q: Can I define tests for tasks? A: Yes. Add test: <command> in the task description or set testCommand in settings.json.

License

GPL 3+. See LICENSE file.