Gentle-AI™

The deterministic engineering environment for the AI agent you already use.

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Your agent writes code, then forgets everything. It has no opinion about your project, and no way to prove what it did beyond asking you to read every line. Gentle-AI gives it memory, a workflow, and evidence.

_{If Gentle-AI made your agent worth trusting, a star helps other people find it.}

_{WORKS WITH THE AGENT YOU ALREADY HAVE} Pi · OpenCode · Claude Code · Codex · Cursor · VS Code Copilot · Gemini CLI · Kilo Code
Kimi Code · Kiro IDE · Qwen Code · Hermes · Antigravity · Windsurf · OpenClaw · Trae _{16 integrations · native configuration · compare capabilities →}

## Features --- ### Engram™ — Keep your project context Three work sessions separated by a restart and by context compaction. Each break cuts the session layer but stops at the memory layer underneath. The first session saves a decision, the next one asks memory before asking you, and weeks later the same question is answered from memory instead of by re-reading the repository.

Three work sessions separated by a restart and by context compaction. Each break cuts the session layer but stops at the memory layer underneath. The first session saves a decision, the next one asks memory before asking you, and weeks later the same question is answered from memory instead of by re-reading the repository.

The cost of a fresh session is not the tokens — it is you, re-explaining the same decisions every morning. Engram removes that: your agent writes down what it learns as it goes and reaches for it before it reaches for you, so context accumulates instead of resetting. **[Docs →](docs/engram.md)** --- ### ODD — Keep small work small ODD authorizes and understands a request. Read-only work ends separately; authorized work stays lightweight when small or keeps a recoverable record when substantial, then is implemented, checked, and closed.

ODD authorizes and understands a request. Read-only work ends separately; authorized work stays lightweight when small or keeps a recoverable record when substantial, then is implemented, checked, and closed.

Small changes should not need a planning pipeline, and larger work should not lose its context between sessions. **Organic Driven Development (ODD)** keeps understood changes lightweight and gives substantial, authorized work one recoverable feature document. The agent explores before changing code, checks the results, and keeps progress current so work can resume without rebuilding the plan. **[Docs →](docs/usage.md#organic-driven-development-odd)** --- ### Strict TDD — Prove behavior when enabled ODD uses the configured TDD mode and exact test runner. When Strict TDD is enabled, capture a failing behavior test before implementation, make it pass, then refactor while tests stay green. When disabled, run applicable functional checks anyway. The presence of tests alone does not enable Strict TDD. **[Docs →](docs/usage.md#organic-driven-development-odd)** --- ### RDD — Check finished work at the right depth

How RDD checks a finished change. The exact change is frozen to a lineage, revision and target, then a read-only risk assessment picks the depth: passive gets a structural readback with zero reviewer lenses, medium gets one focused lens, high gets the canonical 4R — Risk, Resilience, Readability and Reliability. At most one bounded correction is allowed, and one exact acknowledgement closes the transaction. Delivery stays human-owned.

Receipt-Driven Development (RDD) is on by default and opt-out: run `gentle-ai review mode disable` to turn it off. Explicit global or clone-local OFF choices remain OFF. Its point is that a review cannot drift: the candidate is frozen before anything reads it, so the evidence belongs to the exact version you are about to rely on — not to whatever the worktree looked like a moment later. The depth comes from that frozen candidate rather than from the model's judgment, and the result is informational. Commit, push and release stay your call. **[Docs →](docs/review-integration.md)** --- ### Deterministic by design — Know the next valid step A different agent, a different model and a brand-new session all converge on the gentle-ai binary. It reads the change state from files on disk and returns the only valid next transition, so no model votes on what comes next. The answer is always one of four public states: Working, Checking, Ready, or Needs your decision.

A model that guesses the next step guesses differently tomorrow, and differently again for your teammate. That is the gap between a workflow and a suggestion. The **`gentle-ai` binary** owns native RDD review transitions; ODD guidance keeps ordinary work proportional to the request. Review evidence is bound to the candidate rather than a model's recollection. **[Docs →](docs/trigger-rules.md)** --- ### Gentle Shell — A complete workspace for Pi Gentle Shell development workspace with the todo list and live context and spend information

Gentle Shell development workspace with the todo list and live context and spend information

Gentle Shell is a separate Pi integration package. Gentle AI configures supported agents; Gentle Shell owns its own Pi runtime, agents, and interface. Installing or updating this binary does not itself establish Pi behavior parity. **[Docs →](docs/pi.md)** --- ### 16 agents — Keep the agent you already use The installer configuring multiple agents

The installer configuring multiple agents

## Get started ```bash # macOS (Homebrew) brew install gentleman-programming/tap/gentle-ai # macOS / Linux (curl) curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai/main/scripts/install.sh | bash # Windows (PowerShell) — source install, needs Go 1.25.10+ go install github.com/gentleman-programming/gentle-ai/v3/cmd/gentle-ai@latest ``` ```bash gentle-ai # pick your agents, components and persona gentle-ai doctor # verify — read-only, changes nothing ``` Then use your agent normally. Your configs are snapshotted before every write, and **Gentle-AI never installs an AI agent for you** — it configures what you already have. > **Beta channel, signature verification and per-distro prerequisites: [Quickstart →](docs/quickstart.md)**

## Documentation | Where to go | What you'll find | | :--- | :--- | | **[Intended Usage](docs/intended-usage.md)** | The mental model. If you read one page, read this one. | | **[Quickstart](docs/quickstart.md)** · **[Usage](docs/usage.md)** | Install, prerequisites, every CLI command and flag | | **[Agents](docs/agents.md)** | Feature matrix and per-agent notes for all 16 | | **[ODD](docs/usage.md#organic-driven-development-odd)** · **[Routing](docs/trigger-rules.md)** | Everyday direct and delegated work | | **[Review](docs/review-integration.md)** · **[Architecture](docs/architecture/organic-rdd.md)** | The RDD contract, lifecycle and threat model | | **[Engram](docs/engram.md)** · **[Components](docs/components.md)** | Memory commands, skills, presets and personas | | **[Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md)** · **[Codebase Guide](docs/CODEBASE-GUIDE.md)** | Extend or contribute | | **[Telemetry](docs/telemetry.md)** | What we count, and how to turn it off |

## Community Everything labelled [`up-for-grabs`](https://github.com/Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aup-for-grabs) is scoped, approved and unclaimed — pick one and it's yours.

_{This project exists because of these people.}

## Built with Gentle-AI Shipped something with Gentle-AI? Wear the rose. Paste this into your README and the badge links back here:

```html

``` Prefer plain Markdown? ```markdown [![Built with Gentle-AI](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai/main/docs/assets/brand/built-with-gentle-ai.png)](https://github.com/Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai) ``` Keep the image URL exactly as shown — it is how I find and feature the projects that carry the badge.

## About the author Built by [Alan Buscaglia](https://github.com/Gentleman-Programming) (Gentleman Programming): 15 years of enterprise architecture, a community of thousands of developers testing these tools daily, and one rule for AI-assisted work — **verifying beats generating**. Teams adopting AI and finding it isn't working — resistance, everyone prompting their own way, no shared quality bar — can reach out about **[engagements built on these same open-source tools →](docs/consulting.md)**.

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Gentle-AI is crafted with Gentle-AI

> **Trademark notice:** The Gentle AI™ and Engram™ names and logos are trademarks of Alan Buscaglia. Both marks are used throughout this document; the symbol appears on the first prominent mention of each, and this notice covers the rest. The MIT License applies to the code; it does not permit implying endorsement or official affiliation. See [TRADEMARKS.md](TRADEMARKS.md).