Promode is a battle-tested methodology for AI-assisted software development. It covers the full lifecycle:
- Project management — Task tracking, dependencies, progress visibility
- Brainstorming — Structured ideation with the user
- Product design — Feature specification and acceptance criteria
- Research & analysis — Codebase exploration, documentation lookup
- Planning — Implementation strategy before writing code
- Execution — Parallel task delegation to specialised agents
- Test-driven development — Verify behaviour with tests, not inspection
- Code review — Separate review phase before work is complete
The methodology is designed for efficiency: conservative use of context, intelligent model selection for speed and cost, and aggressive delegation to keep the main conversation focused on high level objectives, not implementation detail.
- Claude Code (vanilla install works fine)
Run two commands to get the plugin setup:
/plugin marketplace add mikekelly/promode
/plugin install promode
Then restart Claude Code and prompt Claude to install promode (update your CLAUDE.md, etc):
Update the claude code meta to install promode
The main agent handles high-level work: brainstorming with the user, designing features, planning implementation, and orchestrating execution. It delegates implementation to phase-specific agents:
| Agent | Purpose |
|---|---|
promode:implementer |
TDD workflow, write code |
promode:reviewer |
Code review, approve or request rework |
promode:tester |
Run tests, parse results, critique quality |
promode:debugger |
Root cause analysis, fix failures |
promode:smoke-tester |
Create and execute smoke tests as markdown |
promode:git-manager |
Commits, pushes, PRs, git research |
promode:environment-manager |
Docker, services, health checks, scripts |
Each agent has the methodology embedded in its definition—they know TDD practices, behavioural-authority rules, and how to report results. Subagents commit changes before reporting back.
Tasks can run in parallel when independent, improving throughput on larger features.
Phase Agents — Implementation, review, and debugging agents with methodology baked in.
Skills:
- managing-skills — Install, update, and remove skills from GitHub or local sources
- managing-claude-code-meta — Set up, migrate, and audit CLAUDE.md files
MCP Servers (auto-start):
- context7 — Library documentation (upstash/context7)
- exa — Web search (requires
EXA_API_KEY) - grep_app — Code search via grep.app
Promode makes skill management conversational:
- "Install the skill mikekelly/debugging-react-native"
- "Install the skill from https://github.com/metabase/metabase/tree/master/.claude/skills/typescript-review"
- "Update my installed skills"
- "Remove the pdf skill"
Works with both user-level (~/.claude/skills/) and project-level (.claude/skills/) installations.