director-mode-lite

Director Mode Lite

<strong>Use Claude Code like a Director, not a Programmer</strong>

Website | Quick Start | Features | Examples | Discord

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<i>"Don't write code. Direct Claude to write code for you."</i>

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Start Here

After installing, run these 3 commands:

/getting-started          # Guided 5-minute onboarding
/project-init             # Auto-detect project and configure
/workflow                 # Start your first feature

New to Director Mode? Read What is Director Mode? below, or jump to Quick Start.

<strong>Compatibility</strong>

Director Mode Lite is fully compatible with the latest Claude Code release (Claude 5 era), including support for:

• Claude 5 family model selection in agent/skill frontmatter (fable, opus, sonnet, haiku aliases)
• Agent Teams (experimental multi-agent collaboration)
• 1M context window models (opus[1m], sonnet[1m])
• All 30 hook event types including SessionStart, PreCompact, and PostCompact
• Multi-account delegation via CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR profiles (/handoff-claude)

Tested with Claude Code CLI v2.1.201 as of July 2026. Works with Claude Fable 5, Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5, and Haiku 4.5.

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What is Director Mode?

Director Mode is a paradigm shift in AI-assisted development. Instead of writing code line by line, you direct Claude to execute your vision autonomously.

  Traditional Coding                    Director Mode
  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━                    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  You: Write code                       You: Define the vision
  AI:  Follow orders                    AI:  Execute autonomously
       ↓                                     ↓
  Micromanagement                       Strategic oversight
  One task at a time                    Parallel agent execution
  Manual intervention                   Continuous automation

Core Principles

Principle	Description
Efficiency First	Direct execution, minimal interruption
Parallel Processing	Multiple agents working simultaneously
Autonomous Execution	AI handles implementation details
Strategic Oversight	You focus on "what" and "why"

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Key Feature: TDD-Driven Auto-Loop

<table> <tr> <td width="50%">

Test-Driven Development Automation

Similar to Ralph Wiggum, Auto-Loop uses Stop hooks but focuses on TDD:

• Acceptance Criteria Tracking - Parse - [ ] and auto-check completion
• TDD Methodology - Red-Green-Refactor cycle guidance
• Checkpoint Recovery - Resume from .auto-loop/checkpoint.json
• Agent Collaboration - code-reviewer, test-runner integration

Stop anytime with:

touch .auto-loop/stop

</td> <td width="50%">

/auto-loop "Create a calculator

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] add(a, b) function
- [ ] subtract(a, b) function
- [ ] Unit tests"

[Iteration 1] RED    → Write test...
[Iteration 2] GREEN  → Implement...
[Iteration 3] REFACTOR → Clean...
[Iteration 4] GREEN  → subtract()...
[Iteration 5] All criteria complete!

</td> </tr> </table>

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Self-Evolving Loop

<table> <tr> <td width="50%">

Beyond Auto-Loop: Strategy Evolution

Self-Evolving Loop takes automation further by:

• Dynamic Skill Generation - Creates custom skills for each task
• Learning from Failures - Extracts patterns and root causes
• Strategy Evolution - Improves its own execution approach
• 8-Phase Workflow - ANALYZE → GENERATE → EXECUTE → VALIDATE → DECIDE → LEARN → EVOLVE → SHIP

Key difference from auto-loop:

Feature	auto-loop	evolving-loop
Strategy	Fixed TDD	Dynamic
Learning	None	Extracts patterns
Adaptation	Low	High

</td> <td width="50%">

/evolving-loop "Build REST API

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] GET /users endpoint
- [ ] POST /users endpoint
- [ ] Input validation
- [ ] Error handling
"

# The loop:
# 1. Analyzes requirements deeply
# 2. Generates custom executor skill
# 3. Executes with TDD
# 4. Validates results
# 5. If fails: learns & evolves skills
# 6. Repeats until all criteria pass
# 7. Ships the final result

Check status:

/evolving-status
/evolving-status --history
/evolving-status --evolution

</td> </tr> </table>

See docs/SELF-EVOLVING-LOOP.md for complete documentation.

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Quick Start

Option A: Plugin Install (Recommended)

# 1. Install plugin via Claude Code marketplace
claude plugin install director-mode-lite

# 2. Navigate to your project directory
cd your-project

# 3. Run installation script from cached plugin
~/.claude/plugins/cache/director-mode-lite/director-mode-lite/1.8.1/install.sh .

# 4. Verify installation
~/.claude/plugins/cache/director-mode-lite/director-mode-lite/1.8.1/scripts/verify-install.sh .

<strong>🔧 Plugin Management Commands</strong>

# Update plugin to latest version
claude plugin marketplace update director-mode-lite
claude plugin uninstall director-mode-lite
claude plugin install director-mode-lite

# Check installed plugins
cat ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json | jq '.'

# View plugin cache
ls -la ~/.claude/plugins/cache/director-mode-lite/director-mode-lite/1.8.1/

Option B: Clone and Install

git clone https://github.com/claude-world/director-mode-lite.git
cd director-mode-lite
./install.sh /path/to/your/project

Option C: Try Demo First

git clone https://github.com/claude-world/director-mode-lite.git
cd director-mode-lite
./demo.sh ~/director-mode-demo

Verify Installation

Run the verifier against the project where you installed Director Mode Lite:

# Plugin install
~/.claude/plugins/cache/director-mode-lite/director-mode-lite/1.8.1/scripts/verify-install.sh .

# Clone install
./scripts/verify-install.sh /path/to/your/project

The script checks:

• CLAUDE.md plus core .claude/ files and directories
• Required CLAUDE.md sections from the template
• .claude/skills/ and .claude/agents/ are populated

It prints colored PASS and FAIL lines, exits 0 when all checks pass, and exits 1 if any check fails.

<strong>✨ Installation Features</strong>

• Automatic Backup - Backups existing .claude/ to .claude-backup-TIMESTAMP/
• Portable Path Hooks - All hooks use $CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR for portability (no more "file not found" errors)
• Smart Merge - Preserves existing settings, only adds new hooks
• Skip Existing - Won't overwrite already-installed commands/agents/skills
• Clean Uninstall - ./uninstall.sh removes all installed files
• Automated Tests - ./tests/run-tests.sh validates installation

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What's Included

<table> <tr> <td valign="top" width="33%">

Commands (27)

Workflow:

Command	Purpose
/workflow	5-step dev flow
/focus-problem	Problem analysis
/test-first	TDD cycle
/smart-commit	Auto commits
/plan	Task breakdown
/auto-loop	TDD loop
/evolving-loop	Self-evolving
/evolving-status	Loop status

Setup & Health:

Command	Purpose
/getting-started	5-min onboarding
/project-init	Quick setup
/check-environment	Env check
/project-health-check	7-point audit

Validators:

Command	Purpose
/claude-md-check	Validate CLAUDE.md
/mcp-check	Validate MCP config
/agent-check	Validate agent files
/skill-check	Validate skill files
/hooks-check	Validate hooks

Generators:

Command	Purpose
/claude-md-template	Generate CLAUDE.md
/agent-template	Generate agents
/skill-template	Generate skills
/hook-template	Generate hooks

Utilities:

Command	Purpose
/changelog	Session events
/handoff-codex	Delegate to Codex
/handoff-gemini	Delegate to Gemini
/handoff-claude	Multi-account Claude
/agents	List agents
/skills	List skills

</td> <td valign="top" width="33%">

Agents (14)

Core Agents:

Agent	Purpose
code-reviewer	Quality, security
debugger	Error analysis
doc-writer	Documentation

Expert Agents:

Agent	Purpose
claude-md-expert	CLAUDE.md design
mcp-expert	MCP configuration
agents-expert	Custom agents
skills-expert	Custom skills
hooks-expert	Automation hooks

Self-Evolving Agents:

Agent	Purpose
evolving-orchestrator	Loop coordination
requirement-analyzer	Deep analysis
skill-synthesizer	Generate skills
completion-judge	Decision making
experience-extractor	Learn from failures
skill-evolver	Evolve strategy

</td> <td valign="top" width="34%">

Skills (32)

27 of the skills are the slash commands listed left. The other 5 are internal knowledge bases, auto-loaded by agents or triggered by Claude:

Internal Skill	Purpose
code-reviewer	Review checklists
debugger	5-step method
doc-writer	Doc templates
test-runner	Test commands
interop-router	Auto CLI routing

Plus:

• CLAUDE.md template
• Starter hooks (Auto-Loop, changelog, validator)
• 4 hands-on examples

</td> </tr> </table>

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The 5-Step Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                                 │
│    Step 1                Step 2                Step 3           │
│  ┌─────────┐           ┌─────────┐           ┌─────────┐        │
│  │ FOCUS   │    ──►    │ PREVENT │    ──►    │  TEST   │        │
│  │ PROBLEM │           │ OVERDEV │           │  FIRST  │        │
│  └─────────┘           └─────────┘           └─────────┘        │
│       │                     │                     │             │
│  Understand             Only build            Red-Green-        │
│  before coding          what's needed         Refactor          │
│                                                                 │
│                    Step 4                Step 5                 │
│                  ┌─────────┐           ┌─────────┐              │
│           ──►    │DOCUMENT │    ──►    │ COMMIT  │              │
│                  └─────────┘           └─────────┘              │
│                       │                     │                   │
│                  Auto-generated         Conventional            │
│                  documentation          Commits                 │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Parallel Agent Execution

One of Director Mode's key advantages is parallel processing:

<table> <tr> <td width="50%">

Traditional (Sequential)

Agent 1 ─────►
              Agent 2 ─────►
                            Agent 3 ─────►
                                          Agent 4 ─────►

Total time: 4 × single_agent_time

</td> <td width="50%">

Director Mode (Parallel)

Agent 1 ─────┐
Agent 2 ─────┼────► Results
Agent 3 ─────┤
Agent 4 ─────┘

Total time: max(single_agent_time)

</td> </tr> </table>

Example: Problem Analysis

# Old way: Sequential manual searches
grep -r "authentication" src/
grep -r "login" src/
cat src/auth/index.ts
# ... slow, tedious

# Director Mode: One command, 5 parallel agents
/focus-problem "understand the authentication flow"

Scale Out: Multi-Account Delegation

Parallelism doesn't stop at one account. /handoff-claude delegates tasks to other authorized Claude Code instances — each with its own login, quota, and session state via CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR profiles:

# One-time setup per profile (isolated login, sessions, settings)
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-profiles/z-1 claude auth login

# Fan out to two accounts in parallel, conflict-free via git worktrees
(cd ../proj-task-a && claude-z-1 -p "Implement feature A" --permission-mode acceptEdits) &
(cd ../proj-task-b && claude-z-2 -p "Implement feature B" --permission-mode acceptEdits) &
wait

Run /handoff-claude for the full setup guide (wrapper commands, auth, result collection).

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Agents

<table> <tr> <td width="33%">

code-reviewer

Automatically reviews:

• Code quality
• Security vulnerabilities
• Error handling
• Performance
• Test coverage

Triggers: Code changes, commits, "review"

</td> <td width="33%">

debugger

5-step debugging:

1. Capture error info
2. Isolate problem
3. Form hypotheses
4. Investigate
5. Fix & verify

Triggers: Errors, test failures, "bug"

</td> <td width="34%">

doc-writer

Creates and maintains:

• README files
• API documentation
• Code comments
• Architecture docs

Triggers: New features, structure changes

</td> </tr> </table>

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Expert Agents

Director Mode Lite includes 5 Expert Agents that deeply understand Claude Code's official features:

<table> <tr> <td width="20%">

claude-md-expert

Your guide for:

• CLAUDE.md design patterns
• Project configuration
• Best practices

Ask: "How should I structure my CLAUDE.md?"

</td> <td width="20%">

mcp-expert

Your guide for:

• MCP server setup
• Available MCPs
• Troubleshooting

Ask: "How do I add a Notion MCP?"

</td> <td width="20%">

agents-expert

Your guide for:

• Custom agent creation
• Tool permissions
• Agent patterns

Ask: "Create a security-reviewer agent"

</td> <td width="20%">

skills-expert

Your guide for:

• Slash command creation
• Skill frontmatter
• Workflow design

Ask: "Make a /deploy command"

</td> <td width="20%">

hooks-expert

Your guide for:

• Stop hooks (Auto-Loop)
• PreToolUse/PostToolUse
• Automation patterns

Ask: "How do I protect .env files?"

</td> </tr> </table>

Why? Anthropic provides documentation, but no specialized helpers. These experts know the official docs and help you implement correctly.

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Validators & Generators

Pair with Expert Agents for validate-then-fix or template-then-customize workflows:

<table> <tr> <td width="50%">

Validators (5)

Validate your configurations and get actionable fix suggestions:

/claude-md-check              # Check CLAUDE.md structure
/mcp-check                    # Check MCP settings.json
/agent-check [file.md]        # Check agent file format
/skill-check [file.md]        # Check skill file format
/hooks-check                  # Check hooks config + scripts

Output format:

## Validation Report

### Status: ✅ PASS / ⚠️ WARNINGS / ❌ FAIL

| Check | Status | Notes |
|-------|--------|-------|
| ...   | ✅/❌  | ...   |

### Issues Found
1. [Issue and recommendation]

### Auto-Fix Available
- Run command X to fix...

</td> <td width="50%">

Generators (4)

Generate properly-formatted files from templates:

/claude-md-template           # Generate CLAUDE.md
/agent-template [name] [purpose]  # Generate agent
/skill-template [name] [purpose]  # Generate skill
/hook-template [type] [purpose]   # Generate hook

Example:

/agent-template security-scanner "scan for vulnerabilities"

# Creates: .claude/agents/security-scanner.md
# with proper frontmatter, activation triggers,
# output format, and guidelines

Hook types:

• PreToolUse - Block/validate before tool runs
• PostToolUse - Log/react after tool runs
• Stop - Continue automation loops
• Notification - External alerts (Slack, etc.)

</td> </tr> </table>

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CLAUDE.md Configuration

The CLAUDE.md file configures Claude's behavior in your project:

# Project: My App
Tech: TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL

# Policies
- Always write tests first
- Use conventional commits
- Document public APIs

# Workflow
- Parallel agents: enabled
- Auto-commit: disabled
- Review before merge: required

See docs/CLAUDE-TEMPLATE.md for a complete template.

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Comparison

<table> <tr> <th></th> <th>Traditional AI Coding</th> <th>Director Mode Lite</th> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Workflow</strong></td> <td>Ask → Wait → Copy → Test → Repeat</td> <td>Direct → Auto-execute → Review</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Parallelism</strong></td> <td>One task at a time</td> <td>Multiple agents simultaneously</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Automation</strong></td> <td>Manual intervention needed</td> <td>Auto-Loop runs until done</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Testing</strong></td> <td>Often forgotten</td> <td>TDD built into workflow</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Documentation</strong></td> <td>Afterthought</td> <td>Auto-generated</td> </tr> </table>

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Examples

Learn by doing with hands-on tutorials:

Example	Description	Time
Calculator	Auto-Loop TDD demo	5 min
REST API	Building an API with TDD	15 min
CLI Tool	Command-line tool	10 min
TypeScript Library	Publishable npm library	20 min

See examples/ for full tutorials.

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Community

<table> <tr> <td align="center" width="25%"> [ <strong>🌐 Website</strong>

claude-world.com ](https://claude-world.com)

</td> <td align="center" width="25%"> [ <strong>💬 Discord</strong>

Join the community ](https://discord.com/invite/rBtHzSD288)

</td> <td align="center" width="25%"> [ <strong>📊 Live Stats</strong>

Traffic & community growth ](https://claude-world.com/stats)

</td> <td align="center" width="25%"> [ <strong>🐛 Issues</strong>

Report bugs, request features ](https://github.com/claude-world/director-mode-lite/issues)

</td> </tr> </table>

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Documentation

Document	Description
FAQ	Common questions answered
Concepts	Deep dive into methodology
CLAUDE.md Template	Project configuration guide
Hooks Guide	Hook implementation reference (30 event types)
Self-Evolving Loop	Dynamic skill evolution system
Development Patterns	Learned best practices

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Related Projects

Other open-source tools from the Claude World community:

Project	Description	Link
cf-browser	Cloudflare Browser MCP server for headless browsing, screenshots, and web scraping within Claude Code	github.com/anthropic-community/cf-browser
trend-pulse	Real-time trend aggregation MCP server -- monitors 8+ sources (GitHub, Hacker News, Reddit, etc.) for content ideas	github.com/anthropic-community/trend-pulse

These tools work great alongside Director Mode Lite. Use cf-browser for web research agents and trend-pulse for staying on top of developer trends.

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Author

Lucas Wang (@lukashanren1)

• GitHub: @gn00295120
• Website: claude-world.com

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License

MIT License - Free for personal and commercial use.

See LICENSE for details.

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About Director Mode Lite

This is a free, open-source toolkit (v1.8.0) from the Claude World community, compatible with the latest Claude Code (Claude 5 era).

<table> <tr> <td width="50%">

What's included (FREE):

• 27 Commands (incl. validators & generators)
• 14 Agents (3 Core + 5 Experts + 6 Self-Evolving)
• 32 Skills
• Auto-Loop with TDD
• Expert-guided project setup
• Validation & template generation
• Complete documentation

</td> <td width="50%">

Want more?

Visit claude-world.com for:

• Advanced methodologies
• Enterprise support
• Full Director Mode experience

</td> </tr> </table>

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Website | Discord | Twitter

_{Made with direction by Claude World Taiwan}