JSPM – tracerkit@1.11.2

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tracerkit

Readme

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

The workflow is three skills: define (/tk:prd), plan (/tk:plan), verify (/tk:check). Skills are pure Markdown with zero runtime deps — the AI reads your specs directly, counts progress, and archives completed work. No build step, no CLI at runtime.

Get Started

Install

npm install -g tracerkit
tracerkit init

Skills are installed to ~/.claude/skills/, available in every project. Safe to re-run — adds missing skills without overwriting ones you've modified.

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

Claude Code plugin (alternative)

Inside Claude Code, run:

/plugin install tk@claude-plugins-official

Run /reload-plugins if needed. Skills are available immediately — no build step, no config.

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: # open the plan, implement each phase, write tests...

You: /tk:check dark-mode-support
AI:  Status: done | Total: 5/5
     Archived to .tracerkit/archives/dark-mode-support/

Use /tk:brief at the start of any session to see active features and pick up where you left off:

You: /tk:brief
AI:  | Feature           | Status      | Age | Progress | Next                         |
     |-------------------|-------------|-----|----------|------------------------------|
     | dark-mode-support | in_progress | 3d  | 3/7      | Toggle component renders ... |

     **Focus → dark-mode-support**

See Examples for full walkthroughs.

Skills

TracerKit ships skills that take a feature from idea to verified archive.

`/tk:prd <idea>`: Write a PRD

Interactive interview that explores your codebase, asks scoping questions one at a time, designs deep modules, and writes a structured PRD.

Output: .tracerkit/prds/<slug>.md

`/tk:plan <slug>`: Create an implementation plan

Reads a PRD and breaks it into phased tracer-bullet vertical slices. Each phase is a thin but complete path through every layer (schema, service, API, UI, tests), demoable on its own.

Output: .tracerkit/plans/<slug>.md

`/tk:brief`: Session briefing

Shows active features, their progress, and suggested focus. Use at the start of a session to orient.

Output: Feature dashboard in the terminal — no files written.

`/tk:check [slug]`: Verify and archive

Verifies the codebase against the plan's done-when checkboxes. Runs tests, validates user stories, updates phase progress, and transitions the PRD status. On done, archives the PRD and plan to .tracerkit/archives/<slug>/ automatically.

Without arguments, shows a feature dashboard with status and progress before asking which feature to check.

Output: Verdict block in .tracerkit/plans/<slug>.md. On done: .tracerkit/archives/<slug>/prd.md + .tracerkit/archives/<slug>/plan.md

Docs

Document	Description
Examples	Walk through end-to-end usage scenarios
CLI Reference	Lifecycle commands: init, update, uninstall
Configuration	Configure custom artifact paths via `config.json`
Metadata Lifecycle	Understand YAML frontmatter states and transitions
Comparison	Compare TracerKit to Spec Kit, Kiro, and OpenSpec

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