Overview
SDTK is a suite of six local-first CLI toolkits that turn AI-assisted software work into governed, auditable, resumable engineering. Instead of trusting a chat thread, every phase of work writes real artifacts into your repository — specs, prototypes, review packets, deployment evidence, wiki pages, and run ledgers — with human approval gates where decisions matter.
SDTK works with Claude Code and Codex as execution runtimes. The runtimes execute; SDTK governs.
The suite at a glance
| Toolkit | CLI | Owns | Maturity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDTK-SPEC | sdtk-spec | Discovery, specs, PM → BA → ARCH → DEV → QA planning, 17-file SDLC scaffold | Shipped |
| SDTK-DESIGN | sdtk-design | Screen maps, design briefs, static prototypes, design → code handoff | Shipped |
| SDTK-CODE | sdtk-code | Governed implementation workflow, trust layer, review packets | Shipped |
| SDTK-OPS | sdtk-ops | Deployment, verification, monitoring, incident journeys (skill-driven) | Shipped |
| SDTK-WIKI | sdtk-wiki | Local knowledge graph, docs viewer, kanban board, grounded Ask | Shipped |
| SDTK-AGENT | sdtk-agent | Durable multi-step agent orchestration with human gates | Shipped |
Four toolkits (SPEC, DESIGN, CODE, OPS) each own one phase of the idea-to-ship pipeline. Two are cross-cutting: SDTK-WIKI is the memory layer every phase reads from, and SDTK-AGENT is the orchestration layer that chains phases into one durable run.
What makes SDTK different
A governance kernel, not a chat wrapper. Multi-step work runs against a file-backed ledger with a pure state machine: workflow state, events, evidence, approvals, and reports live on disk in your repo. Close the terminal, come back tomorrow, continue exactly where you stopped. See The Governance Kernel.
Evidence over vibes. A PR ships with a review packet. A deploy closes with verification evidence. An agent run renders a durable report of every task, gate decision, and evidence file. See The Trust Layer.
Human gates where they matter. Phase gates in the spec pipeline, review gates before ship, and human_gate stages in agent workflows that block everything downstream until a person decides.
Local-first. Ledgers, artifacts, graphs, and reports are files in your repository. External model/API/runtime calls happen only when you explicitly invoke your AI runtime (for example /orchestrator in Claude Code, or sdtk-wiki ask).
Free and Pro
The core suite is free and MIT-licensed. A one-time Pro purchase unlocks premium capabilities across all kits on a machine:
- Project Intelligence —
sdtk-spec project ingest / audit / refreshPro - Wiki Ask —
sdtk-wiki ask, grounded Q&A over your built graph Pro
Activate once with sdtk activate --license SDTK-XXXX-YYYY. See Installation.