JSPM – tracerkit@1.4.5

Package Exports

tracerkit

Readme

Replace ad-hoc AI prompts with a repeatable three-step spec process: from idea to verified, archived code.

Zero runtime dependencies. Pure Markdown skills, no build step.

Why TracerKit?

AI coding without specs means vague prompts and lost context between sessions. Most planning tools produce horizontal task lists. Nothing works until everything is done.

TracerKit uses tracer-bullet vertical slices instead: each phase cuts through every layer (schema → service → API → UI → tests), so every phase is demoable on its own. Integration problems surface early, context stays focused, and AI assistants get small, well-scoped phases instead of sprawling layers.

The term comes from The Pragmatic Programmer. The name TracerKit = Tracer (bullet) + Kit — read more about tracer bullets.

Get Started

1. Install TracerKit

npx tracerkit init

Skills are installed globally to ~/.claude/skills/, available in every project. No per-project setup needed.

2. Use the workflow

You: /tk:prd add dark mode support
AI:  ✓ Written .tracerkit/prds/dark-mode-support.md

You: /tk:plan dark-mode-support
AI:  ✓ Phase 1 — CSS variables + ThemeProvider
     ✓ Phase 2 — Toggle component + localStorage
     ✓ Written .tracerkit/plans/dark-mode-support.md

You: /tk:verify dark-mode-support
AI:  ✓ All done-when conditions met
     ✅ PASS — archived to .tracerkit/archives/dark-mode-support/

See Examples for full walkthroughs.

Per-project usage

To scope skills to a single project (team members get them via git):

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

Skills

Core skills

The three-step workflow that takes a feature from idea to verified archive.

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

Interactive interview to define a feature. Explores the 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:verify <slug>`: Verify and archive

Read-only review that compares the codebase against the plan's done-when conditions. Runs tests, checks user stories, and stamps a ✅ PASS or 🚧 NEEDS_WORK verdict. On ✅ PASS, automatically archives the PRD and plan to .tracerkit/archives/<slug>/.

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

Helper skills

Useful but optional. This category will grow over time.

`/tk:status`: Workflow dashboard

Scans .tracerkit/prds/ and prints a table of all features grouped by status (in_progress, created, done), with age, latest verdict, and blocker/suggestion counts. Read-only. No files are modified.

Docs

Document	Description
Examples	End-to-end usage walkthroughs
CLI Reference	All CLI commands and flags
Configuration	Custom artifact paths via `config.json`
Metadata Lifecycle	YAML frontmatter states and transitions
Compared to	How TracerKit differs from Spec Kit, Kiro, 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