GSD Pro — The Most Powerful AI Coding Workflow for Claude Code
Free alternative to Cursor Composer, GitHub Copilot Workspace, Windsurf Cascade, Devin, and Bolt.new
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A light-weight and powerful meta-prompting, context engineering and spec-driven development system for Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, and Codex.
Solves context rot — the quality degradation that happens as Claude fills its context window.
This fork adds rollback/recovery, adaptive context loading, and model routing intelligence on top of the original GSD by TÂCHES. Synced with upstream v1.24.0.
npx get-shit-done-cc@latest
Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
"If you know clearly what you want, this WILL build it for you. No bs."
"I've done SpecKit, OpenSpec and Taskmaster — this has produced the best results for me."
"By far the most powerful addition to my Claude Code. Nothing over-engineered. Literally just gets shit done."
Trusted by engineers at Amazon, Google, Shopify, and Webflow.
Why I Built This · How It Works · Commands · Why It Works · User Guide
Why I Built This
I'm a solo developer. I don't write code — Claude Code does.
Other spec-driven development tools exist; BMAD, Speckit... But they all seem to make things way more complicated than they need to be (sprint ceremonies, story points, stakeholder syncs, retrospectives, Jira workflows) or lack real big picture understanding of what you're building. I'm not a 50-person software company. I don't want to play enterprise theater. I'm just a creative person trying to build great things that work.
So I built GSD. The complexity is in the system, not in your workflow. Behind the scenes: context engineering, XML prompt formatting, subagent orchestration, state management. What you see: a few commands that just work.
The system gives Claude everything it needs to do the work and verify it. I trust the workflow. It just does a good job.
That's what this is. No enterprise roleplay bullshit. Just an incredibly effective system for building cool stuff consistently using Claude Code.
— TÂCHES
Vibecoding has a bad reputation. You describe what you want, AI generates code, and you get inconsistent garbage that falls apart at scale.
GSD fixes that. It's the context engineering layer that makes Claude Code reliable. Describe your idea, let the system extract everything it needs to know, and let Claude Code get to work.
Who This Is For
People who want to describe what they want and have it built correctly — without pretending they're running a 50-person engineering org.
Getting Started
npx get-shit-done-cc@latest
The installer prompts you to choose:
- Runtime — Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini, Codex, Copilot, or all
- Location — Global (all projects) or local (current project only)
Verify with:
- Claude Code / Gemini:
/gsd:help
- OpenCode:
/gsd-help
- Codex:
$gsd-help
- Copilot:
/gsd:help
[!NOTE]
Codex installation uses skills (skills/gsd-*/SKILL.md) rather than custom prompts.
Staying Updated
GSD evolves fast. Update periodically:
npx get-shit-done-cc@latest
# Claude Code
npx get-shit-done-cc --claude --global # Install to ~/.claude/
npx get-shit-done-cc --claude --local # Install to ./.claude/
# OpenCode (open source, free models)
npx get-shit-done-cc --opencode --global # Install to ~/.config/opencode/
# Gemini CLI
npx get-shit-done-cc --gemini --global # Install to ~/.gemini/
# Codex (skills-first)
npx get-shit-done-cc --codex --global # Install to ~/.codex/
npx get-shit-done-cc --codex --local # Install to ./.codex/
# Copilot (GitHub Copilot CLI)
npx get-shit-done-cc --copilot --global # Install to ~/.github/
npx get-shit-done-cc --copilot --local # Install to ./.github/
# All runtimes
npx get-shit-done-cc --all --global # Install to all directories
Use --global (-g) or --local (-l) to skip the location prompt.
Use --claude, --opencode, --gemini, --codex, --copilot, or --all to skip the runtime prompt.
Clone the repository and run the installer locally:
git clone https://github.com/glittercowboy/get-shit-done.git
cd get-shit-done
node bin/install.js --claude --local
Installs to ./.claude/ for testing modifications before contributing.
Recommended: Skip Permissions Mode
GSD is designed for frictionless automation. Run Claude Code with:
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
[!TIP]
This is how GSD is intended to be used — stopping to approve date and git commit 50 times defeats the purpose.
If you prefer not to use that flag, add this to your project's .claude/settings.json:
{
"permissions": {
"allow": [
"Bash(date:*)",
"Bash(echo:*)",
"Bash(cat:*)",
"Bash(ls:*)",
"Bash(mkdir:*)",
"Bash(wc:*)",
"Bash(head:*)",
"Bash(tail:*)",
"Bash(sort:*)",
"Bash(grep:*)",
"Bash(tr:*)",
"Bash(git add:*)",
"Bash(git commit:*)",
"Bash(git status:*)",
"Bash(git log:*)",
"Bash(git diff:*)",
"Bash(git tag:*)"
]
}
}
How It Works
Already have code? Run /gsd:map-codebase first. It spawns parallel agents to analyze your stack, architecture, conventions, and concerns. Then /gsd:new-project knows your codebase — questions focus on what you're adding, and planning automatically loads your patterns.
1. Initialize Project
/gsd:new-project
One command, one flow. The system:
- Questions — Asks until it understands your idea completely (goals, constraints, tech preferences, edge cases)
- Research — Spawns parallel agents to investigate the domain (optional but recommended)
- Requirements — Extracts what's v1, v2, and out of scope
- Roadmap — Creates phases mapped to requirements
You approve the roadmap. Now you're ready to build.
Creates: PROJECT.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, ROADMAP.md, STATE.md, .planning/research/
2. Discuss Phase
/gsd:discuss-phase 1
This is where you shape the implementation.
Your roadmap has a sentence or two per phase. That's not enough context to build something the way you imagine it. This step captures your preferences before anything gets researched or planned.
The system analyzes the phase and identifies gray areas based on what's being built:
- Visual features → Layout, density, interactions, empty states
- APIs/CLIs → Response format, flags, error handling, verbosity
- Content systems → Structure, tone, depth, flow
- Organization tasks → Grouping criteria, naming, duplicates, exceptions
For each area you select, it asks until you're satisfied. The output — CONTEXT.md — feeds directly into the next two steps:
- Researcher reads it — Knows what patterns to investigate ("user wants card layout" → research card component libraries)
- Planner reads it — Knows what decisions are locked ("infinite scroll decided" → plan includes scroll handling)
The deeper you go here, the more the system builds what you actually want. Skip it and you get reasonable defaults. Use it and you get your vision.
Creates: {phase_num}-CONTEXT.md
3. Plan Phase
/gsd:plan-phase 1
The system:
- Researches — Investigates how to implement this phase, guided by your CONTEXT.md decisions
- Plans — Creates 2-3 atomic task plans with XML structure
- Verifies — Checks plans against requirements, loops until they pass
Each plan is small enough to execute in a fresh context window. No degradation, no "I'll be more concise now."
Creates: {phase_num}-RESEARCH.md, {phase_num}-{N}-PLAN.md
4. Execute Phase
/gsd:execute-phase 1
The system:
- Runs plans in waves — Parallel where possible, sequential when dependent
- Fresh context per plan — 200k tokens purely for implementation, zero accumulated garbage
- Commits per task — Every task gets its own atomic commit
- Verifies against goals — Checks the codebase delivers what the phase promised
Walk away, come back to completed work with clean git history.
How Wave Execution Works:
Plans are grouped into "waves" based on dependencies. Within each wave, plans run in parallel. Waves run sequentially.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PHASE EXECUTION │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ WAVE 1 (parallel) WAVE 2 (parallel) WAVE 3 │
│ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │
│ │ Plan 01 │ │ Plan 02 │ → │ Plan 03 │ │ Plan 04 │ → │ Plan 05 │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ User │ │ Product │ │ Orders │ │ Cart │ │ Checkout│ │
│ │ Model │ │ Model │ │ API │ │ API │ │ UI │ │
│ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ │
│ │ │ ↑ ↑ ↑ │
│ └───────────┴──────────────┴───────────┘ │ │
│ Dependencies: Plan 03 needs Plan 01 │ │
│ Plan 04 needs Plan 02 │ │
│ Plan 05 needs Plans 03 + 04 │ │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Why waves matter:
- Independent plans → Same wave → Run in parallel
- Dependent plans → Later wave → Wait for dependencies
- File conflicts → Sequential plans or same plan
This is why "vertical slices" (Plan 01: User feature end-to-end) parallelize better than "horizontal layers" (Plan 01: All models, Plan 02: All APIs).
Creates: {phase_num}-{N}-SUMMARY.md, {phase_num}-VERIFICATION.md
5. Verify Work
/gsd:verify-work 1
This is where you confirm it actually works.
Automated verification checks that code exists and tests pass. But does the feature work the way you expected? This is your chance to use it.
The system:
- Extracts testable deliverables — What you should be able to do now
- Walks you through one at a time — "Can you log in with email?" Yes/no, or describe what's wrong
- Diagnoses failures automatically — Spawns debug agents to find root causes
- Creates verified fix plans — Ready for immediate re-execution
If everything passes, you move on. If something's broken, you don't manually debug — you just run /gsd:execute-phase again with the fix plans it created.
Creates: {phase_num}-UAT.md, fix plans if issues found
6. Repeat → Complete → Next Milestone
/gsd:discuss-phase 2
/gsd:plan-phase 2
/gsd:execute-phase 2
/gsd:verify-work 2
...
/gsd:complete-milestone
/gsd:new-milestone
Loop discuss → plan → execute → verify until milestone complete.
If you want faster intake during discussion, use /gsd:discuss-phase <n> --batch to answer a small grouped set of questions at once instead of one-by-one.
Each phase gets your input (discuss), proper research (plan), clean execution (execute), and human verification (verify). Context stays fresh. Quality stays high.
When all phases are done, /gsd:complete-milestone archives the milestone and tags the release.
Then /gsd:new-milestone starts the next version — same flow as new-project but for your existing codebase. You describe what you want to build next, the system researches the domain, you scope requirements, and it creates a fresh roadmap. Each milestone is a clean cycle: define → build → ship.
Quick Mode
/gsd:quick
For ad-hoc tasks that don't need full planning.
Quick mode gives you GSD guarantees (atomic commits, state tracking) with a faster path:
- Same agents — Planner + executor, same quality
- Skips optional steps — No research, no plan checker, no verifier by default
- Separate tracking — Lives in
.planning/quick/, not phases
--discuss flag: Lightweight discussion to surface gray areas before planning.
--research flag: Spawns a focused researcher before planning. Investigates implementation approaches, library options, and pitfalls. Use when you're unsure how to approach a task.
--full flag: Enables plan-checking (max 2 iterations) and post-execution verification.
Flags are composable: --discuss --research --full gives discussion + research + plan-checking + verification.
/gsd:quick
> What do you want to do? "Add dark mode toggle to settings"
Creates: .planning/quick/001-add-dark-mode-toggle/PLAN.md, SUMMARY.md
Why It Works
Context Engineering
Claude Code is incredibly powerful if you give it the context it needs. Most people don't.
GSD handles it for you:
| File | What it does |
|---|
PROJECT.md | Project vision, always loaded |
research/ | Ecosystem knowledge (stack, features, architecture, pitfalls) |
REQUIREMENTS.md | Scoped v1/v2 requirements with phase traceability |
ROADMAP.md | Where you're going, what's done |
STATE.md | Decisions, blockers, position — memory across sessions |
PLAN.md | Atomic task with XML structure, verification steps |
SUMMARY.md | What happened, what changed, committed to history |
todos/ | Captured ideas and tasks for later work |
Size limits based on where Claude's quality degrades. Stay under, get consistent excellence.
XML Prompt Formatting
Every plan is structured XML optimized for Claude:
<task type="auto">
<name>Create login endpoint</name>
<files>src/app/api/auth/login/route.ts</files>
<action>
Use jose for JWT (not jsonwebtoken - CommonJS issues).
Validate credentials against users table.
Return httpOnly cookie on success.
</action>
<verify>curl -X POST localhost:3000/api/auth/login returns 200 + Set-Cookie</verify>
<done>Valid credentials return cookie, invalid return 401</done>
</task>
Precise instructions. No guessing. Verification built in.
Multi-Agent Orchestration
Every stage uses the same pattern: a thin orchestrator spawns specialized agents, collects results, and routes to the next step.
| Stage | Orchestrator does | Agents do |
|---|
| Research | Coordinates, presents findings | 4 parallel researchers investigate stack, features, architecture, pitfalls |
| Planning | Validates, manages iteration | Planner creates plans, checker verifies, loop until pass |
| Execution | Groups into waves, tracks progress | Executors implement in parallel, each with fresh 200k context |
| Verification | Presents results, routes next | Verifier checks codebase against goals, debuggers diagnose failures |
The orchestrator never does heavy lifting. It spawns agents, waits, integrates results.
The result: You can run an entire phase — deep research, multiple plans created and verified, thousands of lines of code written across parallel executors, automated verification against goals — and your main context window stays at 30-40%. The work happens in fresh subagent contexts. Your session stays fast and responsive.
Atomic Git Commits
Each task gets its own commit immediately after completion:
abc123f docs(08-02): complete user registration plan
def456g feat(08-02): add email confirmation flow
hij789k feat(08-02): implement password hashing
lmn012o feat(08-02): create registration endpoint
[!NOTE]
Benefits: Git bisect finds exact failing task. Each task independently revertable. Clear history for Claude in future sessions. Better observability in AI-automated workflow.
Every commit is surgical, traceable, and meaningful.
Modular by Design
- Add phases to current milestone
- Insert urgent work between phases
- Complete milestones and start fresh
- Adjust plans without rebuilding everything
You're never locked in. The system adapts.
Commands
Core Workflow
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:new-project [--auto] | Full initialization: questions → research → requirements → roadmap |
/gsd:discuss-phase [N] [--auto] | Capture implementation decisions before planning |
/gsd:plan-phase [N] [--auto] | Research + plan + verify for a phase |
/gsd:execute-phase <N> | Execute all plans in parallel waves, verify when complete |
/gsd:verify-work [N] | Manual user acceptance testing ¹ |
/gsd:audit-milestone | Verify milestone achieved its definition of done |
/gsd:complete-milestone | Archive milestone, tag release |
/gsd:new-milestone [name] | Start next version: questions → research → requirements → roadmap |
UI Design
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:ui-phase [N] | Generate UI design contract (UI-SPEC.md) for frontend phases |
/gsd:ui-review [N] | Retroactive 6-pillar visual audit of implemented frontend code |
Navigation
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:progress | Where am I? What's next? |
/gsd:help | Show all commands and usage guide |
/gsd:update | Update GSD with changelog preview |
/gsd:join-discord | Join the GSD Discord community |
Brownfield
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:map-codebase [area] | Analyze existing codebase before new-project |
Phase Management
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:add-phase | Append phase to roadmap |
/gsd:insert-phase [N] | Insert urgent work between phases |
/gsd:remove-phase [N] | Remove future phase, renumber |
/gsd:list-phase-assumptions [N] | See Claude's intended approach before planning |
/gsd:plan-milestone-gaps | Create phases to close gaps from audit |
Session
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:pause-work | Create handoff when stopping mid-phase |
/gsd:resume-work | Restore from last session |
Utilities
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/gsd:settings | Configure model profile and workflow agents |
/gsd:set-profile <profile> | Switch model profile (quality/balanced/budget/inherit) |
/gsd:add-todo [desc] | Capture idea for later |
/gsd:check-todos | List pending todos |
/gsd:debug [desc] | Systematic debugging with persistent state |
/gsd:quick [--full] [--discuss] [--research] | Execute ad-hoc task with GSD guarantees (--full adds plan-checking and verification, --discuss gathers context first, --research investigates approaches before planning) |
/gsd:health [--repair] | Validate .planning/ directory integrity, auto-repair with --repair |
/gsd:stats | Display project statistics — phases, plans, requirements, git metrics |
¹ Contributed by reddit user OracleGreyBeard
Configuration
GSD stores project settings in .planning/config.json. Configure during /gsd:new-project or update later with /gsd:settings. For the full config schema, workflow toggles, git branching options, and per-agent model breakdown, see the User Guide.
Core Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | What it controls |
|---|
mode | yolo, interactive | interactive | Auto-approve vs confirm at each step |
granularity | coarse, standard, fine | standard | Phase granularity — how finely scope is sliced (phases × plans) |
Model Profiles
Control which Claude model each agent uses. Balance quality vs token spend.
| Profile | Planning | Execution | Verification |
|---|
quality | Opus | Opus | Sonnet |
balanced (default) | Opus | Sonnet | Sonnet |
budget | Sonnet | Sonnet | Haiku |
inherit | Inherit | Inherit | Inherit |
Switch profiles:
/gsd:set-profile budget
Use inherit to follow the current runtime model selection (for example OpenCode /model).
Or configure via /gsd:settings.
Workflow Agents
These spawn additional agents during planning/execution. They improve quality but add tokens and time.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|
workflow.research | true | Researches domain before planning each phase |
workflow.plan_check | true | Verifies plans achieve phase goals before execution |
workflow.verifier | true | Confirms must-haves were delivered after execution |
workflow.auto_advance | false | Auto-chain discuss → plan → execute without stopping |
Use /gsd:settings to toggle these, or override per-invocation:
/gsd:plan-phase --skip-research/gsd:plan-phase --skip-verify
Execution
| Setting | Default | What it controls |
|---|
parallelization.enabled | true | Run independent plans simultaneously |
planning.commit_docs | true | Track .planning/ in git |
Git Branching
Control how GSD handles branches during execution.
| Setting | Options | Default | What it does |
|---|
git.branching_strategy | none, phase, milestone | none | Branch creation strategy |
git.phase_branch_template | string | gsd/phase-{phase}-{slug} | Template for phase branches |
git.milestone_branch_template | string | gsd/{milestone}-{slug} | Template for milestone branches |
Strategies:
none — Commits to current branch (default GSD behavior)phase — Creates a branch per phase, merges at phase completionmilestone — Creates one branch for entire milestone, merges at completion
At milestone completion, GSD offers squash merge (recommended) or merge with history.
Security
Protecting Sensitive Files
GSD's codebase mapping and analysis commands read files to understand your project. Protect files containing secrets by adding them to Claude Code's deny list:
- Open Claude Code settings (
.claude/settings.json or global)
- Add sensitive file patterns to the deny list:
{
"permissions": {
"deny": [
"Read(.env)",
"Read(.env.*)",
"Read(**/secrets/*)",
"Read(**/*credential*)",
"Read(**/*.pem)",
"Read(**/*.key)"
]
}
}
This prevents Claude from reading these files entirely, regardless of what commands you run.
[!IMPORTANT]
GSD includes built-in protections against committing secrets, but defense-in-depth is best practice. Deny read access to sensitive files as a first line of defense.
Troubleshooting
Commands not found after install?
- Restart your runtime to reload commands/skills
- Verify files exist in
~/.claude/commands/gsd/ (global) or ./.claude/commands/gsd/ (local)
- For Codex, verify skills exist in
~/.codex/skills/gsd-*/SKILL.md (global) or ./.codex/skills/gsd-*/SKILL.md (local)
Commands not working as expected?
- Run
/gsd:help to verify installation
- Re-run
npx get-shit-done-cc to reinstall
Updating to the latest version?
npx get-shit-done-cc@latest
Using Docker or containerized environments?
If file reads fail with tilde paths (~/.claude/...), set CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR before installing:
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=/home/youruser/.claude npx get-shit-done-cc --global
This ensures absolute paths are used instead of ~ which may not expand correctly in containers.
Uninstalling
To remove GSD completely:
# Global installs
npx get-shit-done-cc --claude --global --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --opencode --global --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --codex --global --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --copilot --global --uninstall
# Local installs (current project)
npx get-shit-done-cc --claude --local --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --opencode --local --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --codex --local --uninstall
npx get-shit-done-cc --copilot --local --uninstall
This removes all GSD commands, agents, hooks, and settings while preserving your other configurations.
Community Ports
OpenCode, Gemini CLI, and Codex are now natively supported via npx get-shit-done-cc.
These community ports pioneered multi-runtime support:
| Project | Platform | Description |
|---|
| gsd-opencode | OpenCode | Original OpenCode adaptation |
| gsd-gemini (archived) | Gemini CLI | Original Gemini adaptation by uberfuzzy |
2.0 Fork Enhancements
This fork adds features not yet in upstream:
Rollback & Recovery
Safety net for experimentation — auto-created git checkpoints with one-command undo.
/gsd:rollback last # Undo last plan execution
/gsd:rollback 02-01 # Rollback to specific checkpoint
/gsd:recover # Diagnose and fix interrupted states
/gsd:resume-task <id> # Resume interrupted subagent
Adaptive Context Loading
5-tier context system that loads only what's needed (details):
- Tier 0 (~200 tokens): Position + config only
- Tier 1 (~2K tokens): Planning context
- Tier 2 (~3K tokens): Execution context + dependency graph
- Tier 3 (~5K tokens): Brownfield codebase docs
- Tier 4 (~10K+ tokens): Full context for milestones
Includes subsystem auto-detection (auth, database, API, UI keywords) and frontmatter dependency graphs.
Multi-Model Routing Reference
Routing guide for optimal cost/quality balance (details):
- Haiku: File checks, validation, progress (92% cost savings)
- Sonnet: Code generation, planning (default)
- Opus: Architecture, research, complex debugging
Cost Comparison
Why pay $20-500/month for AI coding assistants when GSD Pro gives you more control for free?
| Feature | GSD Pro | Cursor ($20/mo) | Copilot Workspace ($19/mo) | Devin ($500/mo) | Bolt.new ($20/mo) |
|---|
| Context engineering | 5-tier adaptive | Basic | Basic | Proprietary | None |
| Rollback/recovery | One-command undo | Git only | Git only | No | No |
| Multi-model routing | Haiku/Sonnet/Opus | GPT-4o only | GPT-4o/Claude | Claude only | Claude only |
| Subagent isolation | Fresh 200K per task | Shared context | Shared context | Shared context | Shared context |
| Brownfield support | 7-doc codebase map | File search | File search | Repo analysis | No |
| Parallel execution | Multi-agent waves | Sequential | Sequential | Sequential | Sequential |
| XML task structure | Claude-native | Prompt-based | Prompt-based | Prompt-based | Prompt-based |
| Atomic git commits | Per-task commits | Manual | Auto (messy) | Auto (messy) | No git |
| Open source | MIT | No | No | No | No |
| Price | Free | $20/mo | $19/mo | $500/mo | $20/mo |
GSD Pro runs on top of Claude Code ($20/mo for Claude Max or pay-per-token via API). The framework itself is free and open source.
More Open Source AI Tools
| Repo | What It Does |
|---|
| RECON | Auto-research MCP server — deep dives on any topic with YouTube, papers, and NotebookLM |
Star History
License
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Claude Code is powerful. GSD makes it reliable.
