the-startup

Ship faster. Ship better. Ship with The Agentic Startup.

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Table of Contents

• 🤖 What is The Agentic Startup?
• 🚀 Quick Start
• 📖 The Complete Workflow
• 🎯 Which Skill Should I Use?
• 📦 Plugins
• 🎨 Output Styles
• 📊 Statusline
• 💡 Why The Agentic Startup?
• 🎯 Philosophy
• 📚 Documentation

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New in v3: Agent Teams (experimental) — enable multi-agent collaboration where specialized agents coordinate and work together on complex tasks. The installer now offers to configure this automatically.

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🤖 What is The Agentic Startup?

The Agentic Startup is a multi-agent AI framework that makes Claude Code work like a startup team. Create comprehensive specifications before coding, then execute with parallel specialist agents — expert developers, architects, and engineers working together to turn your ideas into shipped code.

10 slash commands across 3 phases. Specify first, then build with confidence.

Key Features:

• Spec-Driven Development — PRD → SDD → tier-appropriate decomposition → Code
• Three Decomposition Tiers — Direct, Incremental, Factory — /specify classifies complexity and /implement auto-dispatches
• Parallel Agent Execution — Multiple specialists work simultaneously
• Quality Gates — Built-in validation at every stage
• Zero Configuration — Marketplace plugins, one-line install

Installation

Requirements: Claude Code v2.0+ with marketplace support

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rsmdt/the-startup/main/install.sh | sh

This installs the core plugins, configures the default output style, and sets up the statusline with a customizable config file.

Manual Installation

Start claude and run the following:

# Add The Agentic Startup marketplace
/plugin marketplace add rsmdt/the-startup

/plugin install start@the-startup  # Install the Start plugin (core workflows)
/plugin install team@the-startup   # (Optional) Install the Team plugin (specialized agents)

After installation:

# (Optional) Create project governance rules
/constitution                      # Auto-enforced during specify, implement, review

# Switch output styles anytime
/output-style "start:The Startup"   # High-energy, fast execution (default)
/output-style "start:The ScaleUp"   # Calm confidence, educational

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🚀 Quick Start

Create a specification and implement it:

# Create a specification
/specify Add user authentication with OAuth support

# Execute the implementation
/implement 001

That's it! You're now using spec-driven development.

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📖 The Complete Workflow

The Agentic Startup follows spec-driven development: comprehensive specifications before code, ensuring clarity and reducing rework.

All Skills at a Glance

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    SETUP (optional)                      │
│                                                          │
│  /constitution ► Create project governance rules         │
│                  (auto-enforced in BUILD workflow)       │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    BUILD (primary flow)                  │
│                                                          │
│  /specify ────► Create specs (Requirements + Solution)   │
│      │           ↳ Classifies complexity: Direct / Incremental / Factory │
│      │           ↳ Constitution checked on SDD           │
│      ▼                                                   │
│  /validate ───► Check quality (3 Cs framework)           │
│      │           ↳ Constitution mode available           │
│      ▼                                                   │
│  /implement ──► Auto-dispatch by tier, then execute      │
│      │           ↳ Direct (no plan) / Incremental (phase loop) / Factory (parallel units) │
│      │           ↳ Constitution + drift enforced         │
│      ▼                                                   │
│  /test ───────► Run tests, enforce ownership             │
│      │           ↳ No "pre-existing" excuses             │
│      ▼                                                   │
│  /review ─────► Multi-agent code review                  │
│      │           ↳ Constitution compliance checked       │
│      ▼                                                   │
│  /document ───► Generate/sync documentation              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    MAINTAIN (as needed)                  │
│                                                          │
│  /analyze ────► Discover patterns & rules                │
│                                                          │
│  /refactor ───► Improve code (preserve behavior)         │
│                                                          │
│  /debug ──────► Fix bugs (root cause analysis)           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Step 1: Create Your Specification

/specify Add real-time notification system with WebSocket support

This creates a specification directory with two foundational documents plus tier-specific decomposition artifacts:

.start/specs/001-notification-system/
├── requirements.md           # What to build and why  (always)
├── solution.md               # How to build it technically  (always)
│
│  # Th