shipper-cli

The Shipper software-engineering pipeline — discover -> specify -> architect -> design -> plan -> build -> verify -> ship, gated end-to-end by a self-enforcing CLI and a visual-proof QA moat — as a portable, agent-agnostic npm package. This is the PRIMARY distribution: install it and ANY coding agent (Claude, opencode, Cursor, ...) in ANY plain terminal can drive the full methodology, with no Electron app and no Claude plugin required. The package registers the shipper bin.

Install

npm install -g shipper-cli   # or: npx shipper-cli <verb>

Quickstart

shipper create-project '{"name":"My App","brief":"what it does and why"}'
cd "$(shipper create-project '{"name":"My App 2"}' | node -pe "JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync(0)).project.path")"

(Simplest in practice: run shipper create-project '{"name":"..."}', read the project.path in its JSON output, then cd there and point your agent at it.) create-project also wires the framework's Claude Code hooks (phase-gate, checkpoint, notify, ...) straight into the new project's .claude/settings.local.json — a plain claude session in that directory gets them automatically, no plugin install needed.

From inside the scaffolded project, hand it to any agent: "run shipper read-state, then drive the Shipper pipeline." The CLI is the ONLY mutation + gate layer — every shipper <verb> is a JSON-in/ JSON-out call re-derived from disk, so the moat holds no matter which agent or terminal calls it. Run shipper help for the full command surface.

Optional: the desktop app

Want a visual cockpit — kanban board, live terminals, screenshot/video QA review — instead of a plain terminal? The Shipper desktop app scaffolds the identical methodology and wires this same CLI onto PATH automatically. Entirely optional; every project this CLI creates works the same with or without it.

Optional: the Claude Code plugin

Already living in Claude Code and want the methodology + shipper on PATH without a manual install? The Shipper Claude Code plugin (shipper-framework, installable from this repo's marketplace) is a thin, optional wrapper around this same CLI — see scripts/build-plugin.mjs in the source repo. Neither the app nor the plugin is required; this package is the primary way to get Shipper into any agent's hands.

QA capture layers (screenshots, video, DOM assertions)

These layers need playwright + a Chromium download — both real dependencies of this package, so npm install pulls them automatically. The browser binary itself is not bundled (too large) — run once:

npx playwright install chromium

Every other shipper verb (state, board, tickets, decisions, ...) needs no browser at all.