maister

Maister

Structured, standards-aware development workflows for Claude Code

Describe what you want to build, and the plugin handles the rest - from specification through implementation to verification - while enforcing your project's coding standards at every step.

What You Get

• Guided workflows for features, bug fixes, enhancements, performance, migrations, research, and product design
• Auto-discovered standards from your codebase - config files, source patterns, and documentation are analyzed and enforced throughout every workflow
• Test-driven implementation with automated planning, incremental verification, and full test suite runs before completion
• Pause and resume any workflow - state is preserved across sessions
• Production readiness checks including code review, reality assessment, and pragmatic over-engineering detection

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Claude Code CLI installed and configured
• Node.js 20 or newer for HTML mockups (optional — without it, mockups fall back to ASCII)

Installation

/plugin marketplace add SkillPanel/maister
/plugin install maister@maister-plugins

After installing, restart Claude Code (/exit and relaunch) to ensure the plugin is fully loaded.

On GitHub Copilot CLI, install the maister-copilot variant with copilot plugin install — from a registered marketplace (copilot plugin marketplace add SkillPanel/maister, then copilot plugin install maister-copilot@maister-plugins) or straight from the repository subdirectory (copilot plugin install SkillPanel/maister:plugins/maister-copilot). To run a local checkout instead, load it with copilot --plugin-dir /path/to/maister/plugins/maister-copilot; add --add-dir for the same path when the checkout sits outside your working directory, which grants file access to it. --add-dir on its own does not load a plugin. Then export MAISTER_PLUGIN_ROOT as the variant's install notes describe, so HTML mockups can start their preview server.

Initial project setup

Initialize your project to auto-detect coding standards and generate project documentation:

/maister:init

This scans your codebase and creates .maister/ with standards, docs, and task folders. May take a few minutes on larger projects.

If you have another project already using Maister, you can reuse its standards as a starting point:

/maister:init --standards-from=/path/to/other-project

First Workflow

/maister:development Add user profile page with avatar upload

Or just discuss your task with Claude and then run:

/maister:development

The plugin picks up context from your conversation - no arguments needed.

How It Works

1. You describe a task - either as an argument or just in conversation
2. The plugin classifies it (feature, bug, enhancement, etc.) and proposes a workflow
3. You confirm, and it guides you through phases: requirements → spec → plan → implement → verify
4. At each phase, it asks for your input and decisions
5. You get tested, verified code with a detailed work log

All artifacts are saved in .maister/tasks/ organized by type and date.

Context-Aware Commands

Every workflow command works without arguments. The plugin reads your current conversation to extract the task description and auto-detect the task type:

You: "The login page throws a 500 error when the session expires"
You: /maister:development
→ Auto-detects: bug fix, extracts description from conversation

You: /maister:standards-update
→ Scans conversation for patterns like "we always use..." or "prefer X over Y"

You can always be explicit when you prefer - arguments and flags simply override the auto-detection.

Supported Workflows

Command	Use When
/maister:development	Features, bug fixes, enhancements
/maister:research	Research with synthesis and solution design
/maister:performance	Optimizing speed or resource usage
/maister:migration	Changing technologies or patterns
/maister:product-design	Product and feature design

Task type (feature/bug/enhancement) is auto-detected from context. Override with --type=feature|bug|enhancement if needed. Or use /maister:work as a single entry point that routes to the right workflow.

Quick Commands

For smaller tasks that don't need a full workflow:

Command	Use When
/maister:quick-plan	You want a plan with standards awareness before coding
/maister:quick-dev	You know what to do - just implement with standards applied
/maister:quick-bugfix	Quick TDD-driven bug fix — write failing test, fix, verify

Standards-Aware Development

This is the key differentiator. Maister doesn't just run workflows - it learns your project's conventions and enforces them:

• /maister:init scans config files, source code, and documentation to auto-detect your coding standards
• Continuous checking - standards are consulted before specification, during planning, and while coding (not just at the start)
• /maister:standards-discover refreshes standards from your evolving codebase
• /maister:standards-update lets you add or refine standards manually, or sync from another project with --from=PATH

Standards live in .maister/docs/standards/ and are indexed in .maister/docs/INDEX.md.

Important: Run workflows with auto-accept edits enabled. Do not use Claude Code's plan mode with workflows (see Best Practices below).

Beta Channel

Want to try experimental features before they hit stable? Install from the beta channel:

# Add the beta marketplace
/plugin marketplace add SkillPanel/Maister#beta

# Install the beta plugin
/plugin install maister@maister-plugins-beta

If you already have the stable version installed, uninstall it first to avoid conflicts:

/plugin uninstall maister@maister-plugins

To switch back to stable:

/plugin uninstall maister@maister-plugins-beta
/plugin install maister@maister-plugins

Beta versions may contain features that are not yet fully tested. Use at your own discretion.

Staying on 2.x

Maister 3.0 does not resume task directories created by 2.x, so a task started on 2.x should be finished on 2.x. To stay on 2.x, install from the 2.x maintenance line:

# Add the 2.x marketplace
/plugin marketplace add SkillPanel/maister#release/2.x

# Install the 2.x plugin
/plugin install maister@maister-plugins-2x

If another channel is installed, uninstall it first (for example /plugin uninstall maister@maister-plugins).

The 2.x line receives fixes only — no new features — for six months after 3.0.0 is released.

On GitHub Copilot CLI, check out the release/2.x branch and load its plugins/maister-copilot directory with copilot --plugin-dir, as described under Installation.

Best Practices

Don't use plan mode when starting a workflow. Planning is a built-in part of every workflow — the orchestrator creates specs, plans, and other files as it goes. Claude Code's plan mode restricts file creation, which conflicts with this. Let the workflow handle planning on its own.

Start workflows in a fresh session. This is especially useful when chaining workflows (e.g., research → development). Research and product-design artifacts already contain all the context needed, so a clean session avoids noise from prior conversation.

Chain workflows by passing a task folder. If you've completed a research or product-design workflow and want to build on those results, pass the task folder directly:

/maister:development .maister/tasks/research/2026-01-12-oauth-research

You can also append additional instructions to narrow scope or guide the workflow:

/maister:development .maister/tasks/product-design/2026-03-10-dashboard-redesign Implement only phase 1

Known Issues

Orchestrator may stall after long phases. After context compaction (which typically happens after lengthy phases like implementation), the main agent may stop progressing automatically. If you notice it's idle, just type something like "continue" or "proceed" — it will pick up where it left off. You can also re-invoke the workflow in resume mode to reload the orchestrator state:

/maister:development .maister/tasks/development/2026-03-24-my-feature

Learn More

• Workflow Details - phases, examples, and task structure for each workflow type
• Full Command Reference - all workflow, review, utility, and quick commands