We don’t build what already works. We build only the gap.

WCKD is a protocol for getting anything made — software, hardware, a product, an operation — by a council and a crew of specialized agents. First it learns what exists and why the dead attempts died. Then it judges every capability, designs only what is missing, prices it, proves it, breaks it, and ships it with a rehearsed way back.

Read the protocol → Run it in a minute

A build that could have been a download, a purchase or a configuration change is a failure, even if it works.

01 — The four letters

Want

What do we want, to what standard? A brief with capabilities and a Bar: a threshold and a measurement method per dimension, signed by a human.

brief.json

Canvass

What exists, what works, what died and why? At least five source classes per capability, the top candidates actually tried, and the Graveyard mined for the real spec.

landscape.json

Keep / Kill

Per capability: keep, bend, build, wait or kill. BUILD must say why not KEEP and why not BEND. Only the gap is designed, and everything is priced with a confidence class.

verdict · blueprint · cost · prospect · plan

Deliver

Build, prove from clean, break as an adversary, ship with a rehearsed rollback, then keep it with an owner, SLOs, a budget and lessons that make the next project cheaper.

workorders · proofs · breaches · release · runbook

02 — Eight gates

Gate	Question	Human veto
G-W Briefed	Is the want measurable and the Bar written?	yes
G-C Canvassed	Did we look wide, try things, and mine the Graveyard?	—
G-K Judged	Every capability judged, only the gap designed, everything priced?	yes
G-D1 Built	Does every work order have a build log?	—
G-D2 Proven	Proved independently, from clean, against the Bar?	—
G-D3 Hardened	Attacked, and every finding dispositioned?	—
G-D4 Shipped	Rollback rehearsed and monitoring live before cutover?	yes
G-D5 Kept	Owner, SLOs, opex, lessons, ledger row?	—

03 — What the CLI refuses

a gate before its predecessors, or any build before a Canvassed PASS
a canvass with fewer than five source classes or three candidates per capability
“nothing exists” without a search log that proves the look
a BUILD verdict without why-not-keep and why-not-bend
a blueprint containing anything the verdict said KEEP
a reuse ratio that does not match the verdict arithmetic
a cost above the ceiling without a signed change
a prospect with no condition under which it would say “don’t”
a pre-mortem with fewer than three failure modes
one agent building, proving and breaking the same work order
a proof that is not independent, or a self-signed one
an open crit or high finding at the Shipped gate
a rollback that was written but never rehearsed
an owner called “the team”
a KILL or WAIT without a written reason
a human-veto gate passed without a human
a physical build with no certification targets or hazard analysis
a hardware release with a two-unit pilot batch or an unrehearsed recall path
a hazard with no control
a KEEP decision with no priced exit
run cost above zero with no itemised lines

04 — Seventeen roles

conductorscribe listenerbarkeeper scoutappraisercartographer judgearchitectquartermasterprospectorplanner buildervalidatorbreakershipperkeeper

One agent per role, one artifact per hand-off. Whoever builds does not prove; whoever proves does not break; whoever breaks does not fix. Independence is structural, not a promise.

05 — Deploy on any agent

Transport	For	Start
CLI	a shell, a person, a script	`bin/wckd.py` — stdlib only
Handoff	a model that only reads text	`wckd handoff aqm --inline` — SOUL, role, gate criteria, inputs, output path, schema
MCP	Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, any MCP client	`bin/wckd_mcp.py` — 12 tools over stdio
HTTP	a custom loop, n8n, a service	`wckd serve --port 8787` — REST, optional bearer token
Orchestrated	“run it against my agent”	`wckd run aqm --agent "claude -p"` — stops at every human gate

Both realms carry their own obligations: digital (itemised run cost, priced exits, watched kept dependencies, named environments) and physical (certification, hazard analysis, pilot batch, rehearsed recall, recalibration). machine/ is the protocol compiled to JSON — phases, gates, roles, tolerances, campaigns, physical obligations and one self-contained schema per artifact — so an implementation in any language gates at the same place. wckd conformance proves the schemas agree: 16 cases, valid artifacts must pass, mutants must fail.

06 — Run it

# the protocol is files; the CLI enforces the gates
pip install pyyaml jsonschema
git clone https://github.com/WCKDai/wckd && cd wckd
make test                                    # 47 tests, including a full W→D5 run

wckd new aqm "A home air-quality monitor that alerts my phone"
wckd next aqm                                # who runs next, what to hand them, what to write
wckd gate aqm G-W --by "your name" --human   # human-veto gates: G-W, G-K, G-D4
wckd score aqm                                # GOALS.md G1–G12, scored from the artifacts

# kill is a win, and it has to be recordable
wckd gate aqm G-K --by "you" --decision KILL --note "already solved; nothing to build"