# Architecture ## Layered model ``` this repo (global defaults) └── scripts/install.sh → ~/.claude/ (Claude Code config + content) project repo (local overrides) └── .claude/settings.json, CLAUDE.md (overrides global) ``` ## Content deployment model `scripts/install.sh` is a **deployer**, not a composer. It sources `scripts/deploy-manifest.sh` and deploys three categories: - **Files** (`DEPLOY_FILES`): `providers/claude-code/CLAUDE.md` → `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md`; `providers/claude-code/settings.json` → `~/.claude/settings.json`; `core/AGENTS.md` → `~/.agents/AGENTS.md` - **Executables** (`DEPLOY_EXECUTABLES`): `providers/claude-code/statusline-command.sh` → `~/.claude/statusline-command.sh` (with `+x`) - **Directories** (`DEPLOY_DIRS`): `core/` → `~/.claude/core/` (destination fully replaced on each deploy) Skills are **not** deployed by `install.sh`. They are distributed as plugins and installed separately via `claude plugin install @holocron`. `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` is a thin adapter, not a content source. It imports `~/.agents/AGENTS.md` (always-on rules) and `governance.md` (always-on governance), then lists the content index. All always-on content lives in `AGENTS.md` files so other providers can import the same source without duplication. ## Plugin model Skills, agents, MCP servers, and hooks are distributed as self-contained plugin units under `plugins/`, installed independently via `claude plugin install @holocron`. Each plugin is an **apm package**: `plugins//apm.yml` plus a hand-authored `plugins//.apm/{skills,agents,hooks,commands,instructions,extensions}/` tree (ADR-0015). There is no hand-maintained `plugin.json` — every manifest and every host-visible content directory is compiled from that source. Two compilers produce the plugin roots you see in the tree: - **`apm pack` compiles the manifests** (ADR-0015). Per plugin: `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` and `.github/plugin/plugin.json`, both generated from `plugins//apm.yml`. Repo-wide, from the root `apm.yml`'s `marketplace:` block: `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` (apm's `claude` output profile) and `.agents/plugins/marketplace.json` (its `codex` profile, a differently-shaped file). Those two are the only marketplace outputs apm has profiles for — the third root manifest, `.github/plugin/marketplace.json` (Copilot CLI's legacy path), is a byte-identical mirror of the Claude one maintained by `scripts/sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` and gated by the `check-marketplace-mirror-sync` pre-push hook. - **`scripts/sync-plugin-content.sh` compiles the content mirror** (ADR-0017). It wraps `apm pack --format plugin` and copies the resulting bundle's flat `agents/`, `skills/`, `commands/`, `instructions/`, `extensions/`, and merged `hooks/hooks.json` back to the plugin root. Claude Code's installer convention-scans those flat paths and has no `.apm/` awareness whatsoever, so the mirror exists solely to satisfy the host's discovery contract. `.apm/` is the sole hand-edited authoring source for plugin content. An edit made in the flat mirror is discarded by the next sync and is reported as drift by the `check-plugin-content-sync` pre-push hook. Hand-authored material that is not an `.apm/` primitive — `README.md`, `docs/`, `bin/`, `sources.md`, `.mcp.json`, and per-plugin extras such as `plugins/git/config.example.json`, `plugins/gitea/references/` and `plugins/bin/evals/` — lives at the plugin **root** and is untouched by either compiler. That immunity is positional, not by filename. Anything placed *inside* a mirrored directory is destroyed regardless of what it is: `sync_dir` runs `rm -rf "$dst"` before every copy, and `sync_hooks_json` does the same to `hooks/`. A hand-written `README.md` under `plugins//hooks/` or `plugins//skills/` is deleted by the next sync with no drift report, because a file with no `.apm/` counterpart is simply absent from the regenerated tree. This has already cost the repo one document — `plugins/kyberforge/hooks/README.md`, since restored to `plugins/kyberforge/docs/hooks.md`. Plugin-root documentation belongs in `docs/`. ## Governance layer `core/instructions/governance.md` is the always-on governance instruction file. Unlike the on-demand instruction files in the content index, governance.md is loaded into every Claude session via `@import` in `providers/claude-code/CLAUDE.md`. This is a technical guarantee, not a behavioural instruction — `@import` causes Claude Code to expand and load the file at launch, before any interaction begins. The governance layer has two phases: - **Phase 1** (complete): instruction and documentation layer — `governance.md` loaded via `@import`; `docs/ai-constitution.md` and `docs/wiki/HUMANS.md` as human-facing reference; `CONTEXT.md` extended with governance domain language. - **Phase 2** (planned): deterministic enforcement layer — pre-commit hooks, CI gates, secret scanning, licence scanning. Specified in `docs/research/governance_principles/CONTROLS.md`. ## AGENTS.md pattern This repo uses two `AGENTS.md` files as the provider-agnostic source of always-on rules (ADR-0003): - **Repo-level `AGENTS.md`** — instructions for agents working inside this repo (structure, key rules). Imported by repo `CLAUDE.md` via `@AGENTS.md`. - **Global `core/AGENTS.md`** — Communication and Behavior rules that apply across all projects. Deployed to `~/.agents/AGENTS.md`; imported by `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` via `@~/.agents/AGENTS.md`. Both `CLAUDE.md` files are thin adapters: they import from their respective `AGENTS.md` and add only Claude Code-specific syntax (`@import`, content index paths). They carry no original always-on content. This repo also has a `CLAUDE.md` at its root — the Claude Code entry point for working in this repo. It imports `AGENTS.md` and nothing else; there is no `@CONTEXT.md` import. It is not import-only either: below the import sits a fenced `` … `` block carrying the RTK command-prefix convention, which is tool-specific content with no `AGENTS.md` source. This is distinct from `providers/claude-code/CLAUDE.md`, which is the global config deployed to `~/.claude/`. `CONTEXT.md` is therefore **not** always-loaded. `AGENTS.md` instructs agents to read it at session start, which is a behavioural instruction, not an `@import` guarantee — `LESSONS.md`'s 2026-05-17 entry proposed adding the import and it was never applied. Treat that entry as open work rather than a record of a landed change. ## Provider model `core/` is never tool-specific. `providers/` is never shared. When adding a new provider, write an adapter in `providers//` that translates core content into the tool's expected format and location. The core content itself does not change. ## Architectural decisions Key hard-to-reverse decisions are recorded as ADRs in `docs/adr/`. There is no index file — the directory holds 17 numbered ADRs whose filenames state their decision, so `ls docs/adr/` is the index. Read a superseding ADR before the one it supersedes: ADR-0015 (apm as the authoring source of truth) supersedes ADR-0001 and moots ADR-0006, and ADR-0017 corrects ADR-0015's host-discovery gap. Entry points for the structure described on this page: ADR-0002 (two-tier CLAUDE.md), ADR-0003 (AGENTS.md as the provider-agnostic entry point), ADR-0015 and ADR-0017 (the two compilers behind the plugin roots).