What is DevContextForge?

AI-powered editors are powerful — but they're inconsistent without clear constraints. DevContextForge generates structured, role-driven AI development context for your repository so your AI tools follow a defined contract instead of guessing.

Think of it as ESLint for AI behavior — standardized, versionable, deterministic.

⚡ Quick Start

npx devcontextforge init

or with flags:

npx devcontextforge init --env cursor --role senior-developer --strict ultra

🤖 Supported Environments

| Environment | Generated Files | |---|---| | Cursor | .cursorrules, .cursor/rules/devcontextforge.mdc, skills.md | | VS Code / GitHub Copilot | .github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/skills/<role>/SKILL.md, .vscode/settings.json, .vscode/extensions.json, skills.md | | Claude Code | CLAUDE.md, .claude/rules/code-style.md, .claude/rules/security.md, .claude/rules/testing.md, skills.md | | Cloud IDE | .devcontainer/devcontainer.json, skills.md |

👤 Role Profiles — Full Spectrum

Generalist Levels (Experience-Based)

| Role | Level | Focus | |---|---|---| | 🌱 Junior Developer | 0–2 yrs | Learning fundamentals, mentorship-oriented AI | | 🚀 Mid-Level Developer | 2–5 yrs | Independent feature ownership | | ⚡ Senior Developer | 5–8 yrs | Production-grade, explicit error handling | | 🏗️ Staff Engineer | 8–12 yrs | Cross-team impact, platform engineering | | 🎯 Principal Engineer | 12+ yrs | Org-wide strategy, Conway's Law awareness |

Specialized Roles

| Role | Focus | |---|---| | 🎨 Frontend Engineer | Accessibility (WCAG 2.1), Core Web Vitals, component-driven | | ⚙️ Backend Engineer | APIs, reliability, distributed systems, observability | | 🔄 Full Stack Engineer | End-to-end ownership, shared TypeScript types | | 🛠️ DevOps / Platform Engineer | IaC, GitOps, SRE, developer experience | | 📊 Data / ML Engineer | Data quality, ML lifecycle, pipeline engineering |

Leadership Roles

| Role | Focus | |---|---| | 🧭 Tech Lead | Hands-on squad leadership, team standards | | 🏛️ Software Architect | ADRs, formal design reviews, cross-cutting concerns | | 👥 Engineering Manager | People, delivery, team health | | 🔒 Security / AppSec Engineer | Threat modeling, OWASP, shift-left security | | ✏️ Custom Role | Define your own with a free-text description |

🎛 Strictness Levels

| Level | Behavior | |---|---| | ⚖️ Balanced | AI has creative freedom within role guidelines. Best for exploration. | | 📏 Strict | AI must justify deviations and follow standards rigorously. | | 🔒 Ultra | Maximum enforcement. Every output must be production-ready. Best for critical systems. |

📁 Generated Output Examples

Cursor

skills.md          # Universal AI contract
.cursorrules       # Legacy Cursor rules (widely supported)
.cursor/
  rules/
    devcontextforge.mdc  # New .mdc format with YAML frontmatter

VS Code / GitHub Copilot

skills.md
.github/
  copilot-instructions.md     # Repository-level Copilot context
  skills/
    senior-developer/
      SKILL.md                # Agent Skill (agentskills.io spec)
.vscode/
  settings.json               # Workspace settings with Copilot config
  extensions.json             # Recommended extensions

Claude Code

skills.md
CLAUDE.md                     # Main project memory file
.claude/
  rules/
    code-style.md             # Path-scoped: src/**/*
    security.md               # Path-scoped: api/**/*
    testing.md                # Path-scoped: **/*.test.*

🧠 How It Works

1. Run devcontextforge init — interactive prompts guide you through environment, role, and strictness selection
2. Role profile is loaded — one of 14 built-in profiles (or your custom description)
3. Strictness modifier is applied — adds progressive AI contract rules
4. Templates are rendered — environment-specific files generated using your role + config
5. Files are written — commit to version control; AI tools apply the contract on every run

🛠 CLI Reference

devcontextforge init [options]

Options:
  --env <environment>    cursor | vscode | claude-code | cloud
  --role <role>          junior-developer | mid-developer | senior-developer |
                         staff-engineer | principal-engineer | frontend-engineer |
                         backend-engineer | fullstack-engineer | devops-engineer |
                         data-engineer | tech-lead | architect |
                         engineering-manager | security-analyst | custom
  --strict <level>       balanced | strict | ultra  (default: balanced)
  --dry-run              Preview files without writing
  --force                Overwrite existing files
  --cwd <path>           Target directory  (default: current directory)
  -v, --version          Show version
  -h, --help             Show help

📝 Example: skills.md Excerpt

# AI Development Context
# Role: ⚡ Senior Developer | Strictness: strict

## AI Operating Rules
- No speculative abstractions — implement what is needed today
- Explain architectural tradeoffs when multiple approaches exist
- Do not refactor without explicit justification of the benefit
- Flag any code that bypasses existing abstractions or patterns
- Require justification before refactoring existing code [strict]
- Enforce type annotations on all function signatures [strict]

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-role
3. Add your role JSON to roles/ following the schema
4. Submit a PR with clear description and tests

Contribution areas:

• New role profiles
• Additional IDE environment adapters
• Template improvements
• CLI enhancements

📄 License

MIT © DevContextForge Contributors