Claude Dev Manager (CDM)

An AI-powered development manager with an interactive terminal interface. CDM dynamically selects specialized personas from 140+ agent definitions to match your task, analyzes your project, and executes via Claude — all from a beautiful TUI.

Just type cdm to start.

Quick Start

# Install globally
npm install -g claude-dev-manager

# Launch the TUI
cdm

You'll see:

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
○ Not initialized - run /init                 claude-sonnet
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  CDM - Claude Dev Manager

  Commands:
    /help     Show all commands
    /init     Initialize project
    /status   Show project status
    /clear    Clear screen

  Tab: completions  ↑↓: history  Enter: submit  Esc: cancel
  Ctrl/⌥+←/→: word jump  Ctrl/⌥+⌫: delete word  Ctrl+C: exit

❯ 

Type /init to initialize, then describe your task in natural language.

Features

🖥️ Interactive Terminal Interface

• Tab Completion — Type / and press Tab to cycle through commands
• Command History — Press ↑/↓ to navigate previous inputs
• Word Editing — Option/Ctrl + Arrow keys to jump words, Option/Ctrl + Backspace to delete words
• Real-time Feedback — Color-coded messages and status indicators

🤖 Smart Persona Selection

When you describe a task, CDM:

1. Extracts signals from your description (frameworks, domains, risk indicators)
2. Scores 140+ personas against your project and task
3. Selects the best-fit persona for execution
4. Adds review passes automatically for risky tasks (auth, payments, etc.)

📦 Artifact Management

All outputs are versioned and stored in .cdm/:

• Specifications and designs
• Code implementations
• Test suites
• Security reports
• Documentation

Commands

All commands start with / inside the TUI:

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /help | Show all available commands | | /init | Initialize CDM in current directory | | /status | Show project and feature status | | /analyze | Re-analyze project structure | | /personas [query] | List personas or search by keyword | | /artifacts | List all produced artifacts | | /history | Show development timeline | | /config | Show current configuration | | /clear | Clear the screen | | /exit | Exit CDM |

Example Session

❯ /init
┌─ System 14:30
│ Project initialized successfully!
│ 
│   Project: my-api
│   Language: typescript
│   Framework: express
│   Personas: 142 indexed
│ 
│ You can now start working. Type a task description to begin.
└

❯ Add user authentication with JWT and refresh tokens
┌─ You 14:31
│ Add user authentication with JWT and refresh tokens
└

┌─ Assistant 14:32
│ I'll implement JWT authentication with refresh tokens for your Express API...
│ [detailed implementation output]
└

Keyboard Shortcuts

All Platforms

| Action | Shortcut | |--------|----------| | Submit input | Enter | | Tab completion | Tab | | History up/down | ↑ / ↓ | | Cancel completion | Escape | | Clear screen | Ctrl+L | | Exit | Ctrl+C |

Word Navigation

| Action | Mac | Windows/Linux | |--------|-----|---------------| | Word left | ⌥← | Ctrl+← | | Word right | ⌥→ | Ctrl+→ | | Delete word left | ⌥⌫ | Ctrl+Backspace | | Delete word right | ⌥Delete | Ctrl+Delete |

Line Editing

| Action | Shortcut | |--------|----------| | Start of line | Ctrl+A | | End of line | Ctrl+E | | Clear line | Ctrl+U | | Delete to end | Ctrl+K |

Installation

npm (Recommended)

npm install -g claude-dev-manager

Requirements: Node.js >= 20

From Source

git clone https://github.com/MoAdelArar/claude-dev-manager.git
cd claude-dev-manager
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Optional: RTK (60-90% Token Savings)

RTK compresses CLI outputs before they reach the agent's context.

# macOS
brew install rtk && rtk init --global

# Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh
rtk init --global

# Windows
winget install rtk-ai.rtk
rtk init --global

CDM detects RTK automatically.

How It Works

You describe a task
       ↓
CDM analyzes your project (structure + code style)
       ↓
PersonaResolver matches task to best-fit persona(s):
  signals extracted → personas scored → primary + supporting selected
       ↓
PromptComposer builds a rich prompt:
  persona identity + project context + task + review checklist
       ↓
Claude executes (+ optional review pass for risky tasks)
       ↓
Artifacts parsed and stored in .cdm/
       ↓
Everything tracked: history, metrics, persona usage

Execution Modes

• claude-cli (default) — Claude Code executes with the composed persona prompt
• simulation — Generates template-based output locally (for testing)

Risk Signals

Tasks mentioning these trigger automatic review passes:

• Auth: authentication, password, login, JWT
• Payments: payment, billing, credit card, Stripe
• Encryption: encrypt, decrypt, TLS
• PII: personal data, GDPR, HIPAA

The Persona System

CDM uses 140+ personas from agency-agents, organized by division:

| Division | Examples | |----------|----------| | Engineering | Senior Developer, Security Engineer, Backend Architect | | Design | UX Designer, UI Designer | | Testing | Reality Checker, Accessibility Auditor | | Product | Product Manager, Growth Strategist | | DevOps | DevOps Engineer, SRE |

Use /personas to explore, or /personas react to search.

Configuration

CDM auto-detects your project during /init. Configuration is stored in cdm.config.yaml:

project:
  language: typescript
  framework: express
  testFramework: jest

execution:
  maxRetries: 2
  timeoutMinutes: 30
  defaultMode: claude-cli
  reviewPass: auto          # auto | always | never

personas:
  repo: msitarzewski/agency-agents
  divisions:
    - engineering
    - design
    - testing
    - product

View with /config.

Project Structure

.cdm/                       # CDM data directory
  project.json              # Project metadata
  personas/
    source/                 # Cloned agency-agents
    catalog-index.json      # Searchable persona index
  features/
    {feature-id}.json       # Feature state + results
  artifacts/
    {artifact-id}.json      # Versioned artifacts
  analysis/
    overview.md             # Project structure
    codestyle.md            # Code conventions
  history/
    events.json             # Development timeline

MCP Server (Claude Code Plugin)

CDM includes an MCP server for Claude Code integration:

./scripts/install.sh

Or add to ~/.claude/mcp_servers.json:

{
  "claude-dev-manager": {
    "command": "node",
    "args": ["/path/to/claude-dev-manager/dist/mcp-server.js"]
  }
}

Development

npm run dev          # Run via tsx
npm run build        # Compile TypeScript
npm test             # Run tests
npm run lint         # Lint code
npm run typecheck    # Type check

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.