great-cto

One command install for the great_cto Claude Code plugin.

npx great-cto init

That's it. The CLI detects your stack, picks the right archetype, clones the plugin, enables it, and writes a pre-filled PROJECT.md.

What it does

1. Scans your project for stack signals — package.json, requirements.txt, Cargo.toml, go.mod, Chart.yaml, *.tf, hardhat.config.*, etc.
2. Picks the matching great_cto archetype:
   • web-service · mobile-app · ai-system · commerce · web3
   • data-platform · infra · library · iot-embedded · regulated · greenfield
3. Installs the plugin into ~/.claude/plugins/cache/local/great_cto/<latest>/
4. Enables it in ~/.claude/settings.json (atomic merge — other keys preserved, backup taken)
5. Bootstraps .great_cto/PROJECT.md pre-filled with archetype, stack, suggested compliance frameworks

After install, restart Claude Code and run /inbox or /audit.

What the plugin gives you

The CLI installs it; these are what it installs.

• A pipeline of specialist agents — architect, product owner, senior dev, QA, security officer, and archetype-specific reviewers — that run in sequence with human approval gates at the points that are expensive to undo.
• Spending caps that refuse. Set a per-agent cap; when measured spend passes it the dispatcher declines to run that agent instead of quietly continuing. An agent with no measurement reads as unmeasured, never as $0.
• A board at localhost:3141 — tasks, metrics, per-agent budgets, docs search, and the decision journal, all served from your own machine. Nothing leaves it.
• A decision journal that records what each dispatch decided and why, so a pipeline that did not run looks different from one that ran and found nothing.

Telemetry is opt-in and off by default — see docs/PRIVACY.md.

Examples

Commerce detection (Stripe + Next.js)

[1/5] scanning /path/to/saas
  stack: next.js, nodejs, prisma, react, stripe, supabase, typescript
  languages: javascript, typescript
  tests: yes  CI: yes
[2/5] picking archetype
  archetype: commerce (confidence: medium)
  rationale: payments SDK detected: Stripe — PCI-DSS gate mandatory
  suggested compliance: gdpr, pci-dss

AI system (MCP + Anthropic SDK)

  archetype: ai-system (confidence: high)
  rationale: AI/LLM tooling detected (MCP SDK, Anthropic SDK, LangChain) —
             security gate mandatory for prompt injection + output sanitization
  suggested compliance: eu-ai-act

Infra repo (Terraform + Helm)

  archetype: infra (confidence: high)
  rationale: infrastructure-as-code detected: Terraform, Helm

Options

npx great-cto init [options]

  -y, --yes              Skip confirmation prompts (non-interactive)
      --dry-run          Show what would be done without doing it
      --force            Reinstall even if already present
      --archetype NAME   Override detected archetype
      --version-tag VER  Pin to specific great_cto version (default: latest)
      --dir PATH         Run against a different directory (default: cwd)
  -h, --help             Show help
  -v, --version          Show CLI version

Safety

• Atomic settings.json merge: a timestamped .bak file is written before any change. Other enabledPlugins entries and unrelated keys are preserved.
• Dry-run by default: run --dry-run first to see exactly what will happen.
• Idempotent: running twice does nothing the second time (unless --force).
• Never overwrites PROJECT.md: if you already have one, the CLI leaves it untouched.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18.17.0 (Node 18 / 20 / 22 all tested in CI)
• Git (to clone the plugin repo)
• Claude Code

Trust signals

• Zero runtime dependencies — only Node built-ins (node:fs, node:path, etc.)
• 305 unit tests covering stack detection, archetype scoring, and settings merge
• Tests and the release gate run locally (scripts/ci-local.sh) — the hosted CI workflows are present in the repo but have not run since June 2026, so treat the badge-shaped claims in this file as claims about the local gate, not a cloud matrix
• Source: packages/cli/src/ — ~1.2k LOC TypeScript

License

MIT — same as the plugin.

Links

• Plugin: github.com/avelikiy/great_cto
• Issues: github.com/avelikiy/great_cto/issues
• Author: velykyi