A Claude Code plugin that replaces the stock feature development workflow with explicit state propagation across subagent boundaries, eliminating the enthymeme gaps that cause lost context in multi-phase code generation.
The stock feature-dev slash command in Claude Code works, but it has structural problems. A polysyllogism audit of its agent orchestration revealed five gaps where premises established in one phase never reach the agents that need them. The result: subagents that hallucinate file paths, contradict user decisions, or re-derive context that was already resolved three phases ago.
Feature Forge fixes this by introducing a .forge/ state layer -- a set of numbered Markdown artifacts that persist across every subagent boundary. Every spawn prompt explicitly includes the artifact content the agent needs. No premise is left implicit. No conclusion depends on conversation context surviving a subagent handoff.
Claude Code subagents do not inherit the parent conversation's context. This is well-known, but the stock plugin treats it as a minor inconvenience rather than a structural constraint. The result is a chain of enthymemes -- arguments with suppressed premises -- where each subagent is expected to infer what it was never told.
Feature Forge treats subagent boundaries as hard cuts. The .forge/ directory is the hypokeimenon: the persistent substrate that carries state across boundaries. Every phase writes its output there. Every subsequent phase reads what it needs from there. The spawn prompt for every subagent pastes the relevant artifact content directly -- it never says "read this file" without ensuring the agent has the tool and path to do so.
Feature Forge is a Claude Code plugin. Load it with the --plugin-dir flag:
claude --plugin-dir /path/to/feature-forge
Or add it to your Claude Code configuration to load automatically.
Run the /feature-forge command with an optional feature description:
/feature-forge Add dark mode support to the settings panel
If no description is provided, the command will ask clarifying questions before proceeding.
| Phase | Name | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discovery | Understand the feature request. Write .forge/01-discovery.md. |
| 2 | Codebase Exploration | Launch 2-3 explorer agents in parallel to map relevant code. Launch researcher agents if unknown libraries are found. Write .forge/02-exploration.md. |
| 3 | Clarifying Questions | Surface all ambiguities and get explicit user answers. Write .forge/03-requirements.md. Never skipped. |
| 4 | Architecture Design | Launch 2-3 architect agents in parallel, each designing a different approach (minimal, clean, pragmatic). Present trade-offs to user. Write .forge/04-architecture.md. |
| 5 | Implementation | Build the feature following the chosen blueprint exactly. Track all changes in .forge/05-implementation.md. Requires explicit user approval. |
| 6 | Quality Review | Launch 3 reviewer agents in parallel (simplicity, bugs, conventions). Each receives the architecture blueprint and requirements so they can distinguish intentional decisions from actual problems. Write .forge/06-review.md. |
| 7 | Summary | Consolidate all artifacts into a final summary. Offer to keep or clean up .forge/. |
| Agent | Model | Tools | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| code-explorer | sonnet | Glob, Grep, Read, LS, NotebookRead | Read-only codebase analyst. Traces execution paths, maps architecture, documents patterns and conventions. Returns essential file lists with file:line references. |
| code-researcher | sonnet | WebSearch, WebFetch, Read | Technical researcher for external libraries, APIs, and frameworks. Cannot read the project codebase. Answers specific questions with sources and caveats. |
| code-architect | sonnet | Glob, Grep, Read | Read-only architect. Designs one implementation approach from the premises provided (discovery, exploration, requirements). Produces a full blueprint with component design, data flow, and build sequence. |
| code-reviewer | sonnet | Glob, Grep, Read, Bash | Code reviewer with the Elenchus Protocol. Flags only issues at confidence >= 80 that contradict the architecture blueprint, violate requirements, or represent genuine bugs. Style preferences and scope creep are explicitly excluded. |
Every agent's tool list is load-bearing: explorers have LS for directory orientation and NotebookRead for .ipynb files; researchers have WebSearch and WebFetch but no codebase tools; architects are read-only by design; reviewers get Bash for git diff. No agent has tools it does not need.
The polysyllogism audit identified five gaps in the stock feature-dev plugin. This table maps each gap to the fix applied in Feature Forge.
| # | Gap Found | What Goes Wrong | Feature Forge Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No persistent state layer | Subagents receive a summary of prior phases via the spawn prompt, which the orchestrator paraphrases. Information degrades at each hop. | .forge/ artifacts written per phase. Spawn prompts include the full artifact content, not a summary. |
| 2 | Explorer findings don't reach architects | The exploration phase discovers patterns and conventions, but the architecture phase re-derives them or contradicts them because findings aren't forwarded. | Architect spawn prompts include the full content of .forge/02-exploration.md. |
| 3 | User decisions don't reach reviewers | Reviewers flag intentional design decisions as issues because they never received the requirements or the chosen architecture rationale. | Reviewer spawn prompts include .forge/03-requirements.md and .forge/04-architecture.md. The Elenchus Protocol requires checking against these before flagging. |
| 4 | No researcher agent for unknown externals | When explorers find unfamiliar libraries or APIs, the architect guesses at their usage instead of looking them up. | Dedicated code-researcher agent with WebSearch/WebFetch, launched when exploration surfaces unknowns. |
| 5 | Clarifying questions are skippable | The stock plugin can jump from exploration to architecture without confirming ambiguities with the user, producing designs built on assumptions. | Phase 3 is marked CRITICAL: DO NOT SKIP and produces .forge/03-requirements.md, which is a required input for both architects and reviewers. |
Feature Forge was built by TrashWizard / Darv0n as a practical application of the polysyllogism framework for auditing multi-agent orchestration chains.
MIT License. See LICENSE.