JSPM – tracerkit@1.19.4

Package Exports

tracerkit

Readme

Replace ad-hoc AI prompts with a repeatable spec-driven workflow: from idea to verified spec.

Named after the tracer-bullet technique from The Pragmatic Programmer: Tracer + Kit.

Markdown skills, zero runtime deps. No build step, no project dependencies.

Why TracerKit?

AI assistants work best with small, well-scoped tasks — not sprawling layers or flat task lists. TracerKit structures every feature as tracer-bullet vertical slices: each phase cuts through every layer (schema → service → API → UI → tests) and is demoable on its own. Integration problems surface early, not at the end.

Four skills drive the workflow: define (/tk:prd), plan (/tk:plan), build (/tk:build), verify (/tk:check). The AI reads your specs directly, counts progress, and marks completed work done. Pure Markdown, zero runtime deps.

DEFINE          PLAN           BUILD            VERIFY
/tk:prd  ───▶  /tk:plan  ───▶  /tk:build  ───▶  /tk:check
  │               │               │                 │
  ▼               ▼               ▼                 ▼
PRD doc       Phased plan    Implement phase    Pass/fail
                              + feedback loops

Get Started

Claude Code (recommended)

Marketplace install:

/plugin marketplace add helderberto/tracerkit
/plugin install tk@tracerkit-marketplace

CLI install:

npm install -g tracerkit
tracerkit init

Skills are installed to ~/.claude/skills/, available in every project. Safe to re-run.

Per-project install (team members get skills via git)

tracerkit init .              # install to .claude/skills/ in current dir
tracerkit update .            # update project-scoped skills
tracerkit uninstall .         # remove project-scoped skills

Cursor

Copy skills into .cursor/rules/, or use Notepads for on-demand context. See docs/cursor-setup.md.

Gemini CLI

Install as native skills for auto-discovery:

gemini skills install https://github.com/helderberto/tracerkit.git --path skills

Or add to GEMINI.md for persistent context. See docs/gemini-cli-setup.md.

GitHub Copilot

Copy skills to .github/skills/ or add workflow rules to .github/copilot-instructions.md. See docs/copilot-setup.md.

OpenCode

Uses agent-driven skill execution via AGENTS.md. See docs/opencode-setup.md.

Other agents

Skills are plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter — they work with any agent that accepts instruction files. Clone the repo and point your agent at the skills/ directory.

Workflow

You: /tk:prd add dark mode support
AI:  Written .tracerkit/prds/dark-mode-support.md
     Run `/tk:plan dark-mode-support` next?

You: /tk:plan dark-mode-support
AI:  Phase 1 — Theme visible end-to-end
     Phase 2 — User can toggle and persist preference
     Written .tracerkit/plans/dark-mode-support.md
     Run `/tk:check dark-mode-support` when ready?

You: /tk:build dark-mode-support
AI:  Phase 1 — Theme visible end-to-end (3 remaining)
     Implementing... all checks pass. Commit?

You: /tk:check dark-mode-support
AI:  Total: 7/7
     All phases complete — implementation verified.

Between sessions, /tk:brief shows active features and picks up where you left off:

You: /tk:brief
AI:  dark-mode-support (3/7)
       Phase 1 — Theme visible end-to-end: 3/3
     > Phase 2 — User can toggle and persist preference: 0/4

     **Focus → dark-mode-support**

See Examples for full walkthroughs.

Skills

Skill	What it does	Output
`/tk:prd <idea>`	Interview → codebase scan → structured PRD	`.tracerkit/prds/<slug>.md`
`/tk:plan <slug>`	PRD → phased vertical slices, each demoable on its own	`.tracerkit/plans/<slug>.md`
`/tk:build <slug>`	Implement next incomplete phase, run feedback loops	Code changes + checked items in plan
`/tk:brief`	Feature dashboard with progress and suggested focus	Terminal only, no files
`/tk:check [slug]`	Verify done-when checkboxes against codebase and tests	Checkboxes updated in plan

Docs

Document	Description
Examples	Walk through end-to-end usage scenarios
CLI Reference	Commands: init, update, uninstall
Comparison	Compare TracerKit to Spec Kit, Kiro, and OpenSpec
Cursor Setup	Use TracerKit skills in Cursor
Gemini CLI Setup	Use TracerKit skills in Gemini CLI
Copilot Setup	Use TracerKit skills in GitHub Copilot
OpenCode Setup	Use TracerKit skills in OpenCode

Contributing

Fork the repo and create a feature branch
Use TracerKit itself to plan your change (/tk:prd + /tk:plan)
Implement following the plan phases
npm run lint:fix && npm run test:run && npm run typecheck
Conventional Commits (enforced by commitlint)
Open a PR against main

Support

For support, please open a GitHub issue. We welcome bug reports, feature requests, and questions.

Acknowledgments

This project was born out of Claude Code for Real Engineers, a cohort by Matt Pocock. The hands-on approach to building real things with Claude Code sparked the idea for TracerKit. If you're serious about AI-assisted engineering, I can't recommend Matt's cohorts and content highly enough.

tracerkit