claude-engineering-plugin/plugins/compound-engineering/CLAUDE.md

Compounding Engineering Plugin Development

Versioning Requirements

IMPORTANT: Every change to this plugin MUST include updates to all three files:

1. .claude-plugin/plugin.json - Bump version using semver
2. CHANGELOG.md - Document changes using Keep a Changelog format
3. README.md - Verify/update component counts and tables

Version Bumping Rules

• MAJOR (1.0.0 → 2.0.0): Breaking changes, major reorganization
• MINOR (1.0.0 → 1.1.0): New agents, commands, or skills
• PATCH (1.0.0 → 1.0.1): Bug fixes, doc updates, minor improvements

Pre-Commit Checklist

Before committing ANY changes:

• Version bumped in .claude-plugin/plugin.json
• CHANGELOG.md updated with changes
• README.md component counts verified
• README.md tables accurate (agents, commands, skills)
• plugin.json description matches current counts

Directory Structure

agents/
├── review/     # Code review agents
├── research/   # Research and analysis agents
├── design/     # Design and UI agents
├── workflow/   # Workflow automation agents
└── docs/       # Documentation agents

commands/
├── ce/         # Core workflow commands (ce:plan, ce:review, etc.)
├── workflows/  # Deprecated aliases for ce:* commands
└── *.md        # Utility commands

skills/
└── *.md        # All skills at root level

Command Naming Convention

Workflow commands use ce: prefix to unambiguously identify them as compound-engineering commands:

• /ce:plan - Create implementation plans
• /ce:review - Run comprehensive code reviews
• /ce:work - Execute work items systematically
• /ce:compound - Document solved problems
• /ce:brainstorm - Explore requirements and approaches before planning

Why ce:? Claude Code has built-in /plan and /review commands. The ce: namespace (short for compound-engineering) makes it immediately clear these commands belong to this plugin. The legacy workflows: prefix is still supported as deprecated aliases that forward to the ce:* equivalents.

Skill Compliance Checklist

When adding or modifying skills, verify compliance with skill-creator spec:

YAML Frontmatter (Required)

• name: present and matches directory name (lowercase-with-hyphens)
• description: present and describes what it does and when to use it (per official spec: "Explains code with diagrams. Use when exploring how code works.")

Reference Links (Required if references/ exists)

• All files in references/ are linked as [filename.md](./references/filename.md)
• All files in assets/ are linked as [filename](./assets/filename)
• All files in scripts/ are linked as [filename](./scripts/filename)
• No bare backtick references like `references/file.md` - use proper markdown links

Writing Style

• Use imperative/infinitive form (verb-first instructions)
• Avoid second person ("you should") - use objective language ("To accomplish X, do Y")

AskUserQuestion Usage

• If the skill uses AskUserQuestion, it must include an "Interaction Method" preamble explaining the numbered-list fallback for non-Claude environments
• Prefer avoiding AskUserQuestion entirely (see brainstorming/SKILL.md pattern) for skills intended to run cross-platform

Quick Validation Command

# Check for unlinked references in a skill
grep -E '`(references|assets|scripts)/[^`]+`' skills/*/SKILL.md
# Should return nothing if all refs are properly linked

# Check description format - should describe what + when
grep -E '^description:' skills/*/SKILL.md

Documentation

See docs/solutions/plugin-versioning-requirements.md for detailed versioning workflow.