Get Shit Done (GSD)

Get Shit Done (GSD) is a lightweight meta-prompting, context engineering, and spec-driven development system designed for AI coding assistants. It decomposes the development process into six atomic phases—init, discuss, plan, execute, verify, and ship—each using a fresh context window, fundamentally solving context rot in long-cycle AI-assisted projects.

The system persists project state and memory across sessions through a set of structured files:

• PROJECT.md — Project vision (always loaded)
• REQUIREMENTS.md — Requirements with phase traceability
• ROADMAP.md — Roadmap and progress
• STATE.md — Cross-session memory (decisions, blockers, status)
• PLAN.md — Atomic tasks with verification steps
• SUMMARY.md — Execution history
• Auxiliary directories: research/, todos/, threads/, seeds/

Spec-Driven Development Workflow#

Execution & Quality Mechanisms#

• Wave-based parallelism: Auto-groups by dependency, independent plans parallel, dependent plans serial
• Atomic commits: Each task commits independently for clean Git history
• Quality gates: Schema drift detection, security validation anchored to threat models, scope reduction detection
• Agent size budgets: Tiered line limits (XL: 1600, Large: 1000, Default: 500), violations reported in CI

Quick & Exploration Capabilities#

• Quick Mode (/gsd quick): Fast path with --discuss, --research, --validate, --full combo flags
• Spiking (/gsd-spike): Run 2-5 focused experiments
• Sketching (/gsd-sketch): Generate 2-3 interactive HTML prototypes
• Auto next (/gsd-next): Auto-detect and run next step
• Codebase mapping (/gsd-map-codebase): Parallel agents analyze tech stack, architecture, conventions

Multi-Runtime Support#

15+ AI coding assistants including Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Kilo, Codex, Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, Augment, Trae, Qwen Code, Cline, CodeBuddy. Claude Code integrates deeply via @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk for sub-agent orchestration.

Architecture Overview#

GSD uses a layered architecture of CLI installer + SDK + multi-agent orchestration:

• Installer entry: bin/install.js — Node.js CLI, interactive and non-interactive (Docker/CI) installation
• SDK layer: sdk/ directory, TypeScript SDK encapsulating prompt templates and core logic
• Agent orchestration layer: agents/ directory, covering research, planning, execution, verification, debugging roles
• Command registration layer: commands/gsd/ directory, adapting command formats for each AI runtime
• Hooks system: hooks/ directory, Git and lifecycle hooks
• Testing: Vitest framework + c8 coverage tool, coverage requirement ≥ 70%

Installation & Getting Started#

Prerequisite: Node.js ≥ 22.0.0

npx get-shit-done-cc@latest
/gsd-help  # Verify installation

The installer supports multi-runtime selection, global/local installation, and auto-installs as skills format (.claude/skills/) for Claude Code 2.1.88+. Typical flow: /gsd-new-project → /gsd-discuss-phase 1 → /gsd-plan-phase 1 → /gsd-execute-phase 1 → /gsd-verify-work 1 → /gsd-ship.

Unconfirmed Information#

• No independent official website; GitHub README is the sole documentation source
• SDK public API documentation not detailed; external programmatic access capability unconfirmed
• ws dependency specific usage not explained in README
• Community references (Amazon, Google, Shopify, Webflow engineers) only found in README self-description, no independent external corroboration
• npm package: get-shit-done-cc, current version 1.38.2, MIT License (Lex Christopherson, 2025)