PARALLAX ENGINE

The first AI coding assistant that shows its work.

Quick Install

# One command -- installs agent, plugin, skills, and dependencies
npx parallax-opencode

After install, restart OpenCode and press Tab in the TUI to cycle to the Parallax agent.

What Makes Parallax Different

Every AI coding tool (Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf) gives you code. None of them show you how they got there.

Parallax captures the complete reasoning trace of every session -- the ambiguity assessment, the invariants analysis, every verification result, every decision -- and makes it visible, exportable, and replayable.

Instead of "trust me, I wrote good code," Parallax says:

"Here is my complete reasoning trace. Review it. Score it. Compare it with another approach. See for yourself."

The 4 Invariants

Every action is checked against four questions:

The Coherence Score

After every session, Parallax computes an evidence-based quality score (0-100):

• Protocol Coverage (30%) -- Were all 5 protocol phases completed?
• Verification Integrity (35%) -- Pass rate on first attempt?
• Edge Case Coverage (20%) -- How many edge categories were analyzed?
• Timing Discipline (15%) -- Were phases in correct order?

Track your scores over time and see improvement:

parallax trace trend

The Trace Protocol

Every session produces a structured JSON trace file:

parallax trace list
parallax trace show <session-id>
parallax trace score <session-id>

Traces are stored in .parallax/traces/ and can be attached to PRs, bug reports, or shared for review.

The Friction Loop

1. After every write, Parallax auto-verifies (debounced)
2. 3 retries before blocking further writes
3. Parses verification output and reports specific failures
4. Only the friction loop enforces quality -- the rest is instrumentation

Comparison

Architecture

Parallax Agent (system prompt)
  |
  +-- Plugin hooks
  |     event              --> track session ID
  |     tool.execute.before --> block writes if friction exhausted
  |     tool.execute.after --> debounced auto-verify + trace recording
  |     system.transform   --> inject protocol status + mode skill
  |     session.compacting --> preserve state + export trace
  |
  +-- Custom tools (7)
  |     parallax_verify          auto-verify after writes
  |     parallax_analyze         multi-perspective analysis
  |     parallax_checkin         mark protocol step complete
  |     parallax_plan            switch to PLAN mode
  |     parallax_build           switch to BUILD mode
  |     parallax_debug           switch to DEBUG mode
  |     parallax_trace_export    export session trace to file
  |
  +-- CLI (parallax)
        init                    create .parallax/ directory
        trace list              list all session traces
        trace show <id>         show trace details
        trace score <id>        show coherence score
        trace export <id>       export trace to JSON
        trace trend             show score trend

Three Modes

Manual Install (no npm)

# Copy files directly
cp dist-standalone/parallax-engine.js ~/.config/opencode/plugins/
cp agents/parallax.md ~/.config/opencode/agents/
cp -r skills/parallax       ~/.config/opencode/skills/
cp -r skills/parallax-plan  ~/.config/opencode/skills/
cp -r skills/parallax-debug ~/.config/opencode/skills/

# Install runtime dependency
cd ~/.config/opencode && npm init -y && npm install @opencode-ai/plugin

Project Status

Current phase: v0.2.0 -- Foundation + Trace Protocol

Commands

Plugin Tools (in OpenCode)

parallax_verify              Run project verification
parallax_analyze {topic}     Structured multi-perspective analysis
parallax_checkin {step}      Mark protocol step complete
parallax_plan                Switch to PLAN mode
parallax_build               Switch to BUILD mode
parallax_debug               Switch to DEBUG mode
parallax_trace_export        Export session trace to JSON

CLI (terminal)

parallax init                    Create .parallax/ directory
parallax trace list              List all traces
parallax trace show <id>         Show trace details
parallax trace score <id>        Show coherence score breakdown
parallax trace export <id>       Export trace as pretty JSON
parallax trace trend             Show score trend over time

Files

parallax_plugin/
  agents/parallax.md            # Primary agent definition
  src/plugin.ts                 # Canonical plugin (TypeScript)
  src/types.ts                  # Shared type definitions
  src/detect.ts                 # Project detection
  src/trace.ts                  # Trace recording and export
  src/score.ts                  # Coherence score computation
  src/cli.ts                    # CLI entry point
  src/tests/                    # 30 tests across 5 files
  dist/                         # Compiled output
  dist-standalone/              # Standalone plugin file
  skills/                       # Protocol skills
  scripts/                      # Install and publish scripts
  package.json                  # npm package metadata
  LICENSE                       # MIT

License

MIT © @Master0fFate