Tierward

Claude generates. You or your team decides. A development framework that gives Claude Code a governed, phased process, so you build real software consistently and reviewably, from day one. MCP-native: read Tierward governance state from Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code.

Claude Code is fast. The problem it creates isn't in the code: it's in the review. When AI writes everything autonomously, you end up approving diffs you don't fully understand, catching regressions two blocks later, and losing the thread of what the system actually does.

Tierward sits between Claude and done. Teams adopt it tier by tier, from a zero-process discovery setup up to a fully governed pipeline: explicit STOP gates before implementation, audit skills that surface issues before they reach production, and a Stop hook that mechanically prevents Claude from declaring done until your tests pass. Start at Tier 0 and move up when you need more structure.

Since v1.17.0, Tierward ships an MCP server alongside the CLI. Any MCP-aware client can read your project's doctor report, team-settings policy, last arch-audit, and skill inventory without running the Tierward CLI. See MCP server.

---

Philosophy

One thing drives Tierward: Claude Code doesn't become harder to work with because it gets less capable. It becomes harder to work with because autonomous decisions accumulate faster than anyone can review them. The pipeline enforces a review contract: scope confirmed before code, hypothesis written before a fix, tests passing before done. It doesn't slow down work that doesn't need that structure.

The tier system exists because process has a cost. A solo bugfix shouldn't pay the overhead of a team feature workflow. Two pipelines cover the range: Fast Lane (4 steps, scope-confirm) for quick fixes, Full (14 phases, 4 review gates) for team features. Both enforce the same contract: Claude works phase by phase, your team approves each step. Start at the tier that fits your current risk and add more as the stakes rise.

Built for the people who carry the result, product managers and developers alike, so the decisions stay with them, not the model.

Claude Code-first, by design

Tierward works exclusively with Claude Code. No Cursor support, no Copilot layer, no multi-tool abstractions. That's intentional.

The enforcement mechanisms that make Tierward useful are Claude Code primitives: a Stop hook is a hard OS-level block in settings.json; a STOP gate lives in pipeline.md, a rules file Claude reads at session start; audit skills are structured programs that run inside the Claude Code agent loop. These aren't portable concepts wrapped in an abstraction layer. They're direct calls into Claude Code's architecture.

Supporting multiple tools would mean replacing these with lowest-common-denominator abstractions that strip out the enforcement layer. The value of Tierward is precisely that enforcement: the Stop hook doesn't ask Claude to run tests, it prevents Claude from completing a task until they pass.

If your team uses other AI coding tools alongside Claude Code, Tierward governs only the Claude Code sessions. The underlying principles (tests before done, requirements before code, audit before deploy) aren't Claude-specific, but the implementation is, by choice.

---

How it works

1. Scaffold once. npx tierward init detects your project type and scaffolds a pipeline, audit skills, security rules, and governance files matched to your stack and team size. Setup takes under two minutes.

2. Work inside the pipeline. The pipeline is a rules file Claude reads at session start. For Tier M: dependency scan before implementation, STOP gate after requirements, /simplify after writing code. You get the structure without managing it manually.

3. Run audit skills on demand. Skills like /security-audit, /arch-audit, and /systematic-debugging are multi-step programs that run inside Claude Code. Call them when you need them: before a deploy, when a test fails, after a migration wave. Each produces a structured report.

4. You or your team decides. STOP gates pause Claude to present its plan, and a commit gate blocks git commit until you have approved. CODEOWNERS guards .claude/. A Stop hook also verifies your tests pass before a task can close. No autonomous merges.

---

Quick Start

npx tierward init

The wizard detects your project state and routes setup. Three paths available:

Path	Use when
Existing project	Add structure to a project that already has code
New project	Starting from scratch
From existing docs	Share repos or docs - Claude reads them and populates everything

After init, open Claude Code and start working. The scaffold is active immediately.

Context Builder (v1.27.0)

Run context before init if you want the scaffold to reproduce consistently, with a written record of what you asked for:

npx tierward context                       # produces CONTEXT.md
npx tierward init                          # reads CONTEXT.md, scaffolds with no further prompts
npx tierward context --all                 # one-shot: context then init
npx tierward context --from-yaml file.md   # bypass interview, validate + copy
npx tierward validate-context              # CI gate: exit 0/1 on schema check

CONTEXT.md is a schema-validated project context file. Greenfield runs a PM-friendly interview. Existing repos go through three-phase inference: algorithmic detection, LLM extraction, hybrid PM review. The first question routes you to a PM or developer flow. The developer flow reuses the technical questions from the legacy init wizards (projectName, stack, commands, scaffold options) and auto-derives tier.rationale from team size and work scope, so devs aren't asked to write PM rationale prose.

As of v1.27.0, the schema covers all four pipeline tiers: tier 0 (Discovery) and tier S (Fast Lane) for solo or bugfix work, tier M (Standard) for feature-block work with feature flags (has_api, has_database, has_frontend, has_design_system, has_prd), and tier L (Full) for complex domain projects.

---

What it does

One contract across four tiers. Solo bugfix or fully governed team pipeline, the rule is the same: Claude proposes, your team approves.

Tiered pipelines matched to risk

Tier	Pipeline	Best for
0 - Discovery	Stop hook only	First exploration - zero process
S - Fast Lane	4 steps, scope-confirm	Single dev, low risk, quick fixes
M - Standard	13 phases, 3 STOP gates	Feature blocks, 1-2 collaborators
L - Full	14 phases, 4 STOP gates	Team projects, complex domain changes

Start at Tier 0. Move up when you need more structure: npx tierward upgrade --tier=m

27 audit skills

Executable multi-step programs that run inside Claude Code, not prompt instructions. Structured audit workflows with model routing (haiku for mechanical checks, sonnet for analysis).

Skill	Tiers	Purpose
/arch-audit	S M L	Governance files vs Anthropic docs. Auto-fixes deprecations.
/security-audit	S M L	Auth, input validation, RLS, CVE scan. 3-path: WEB / NATIVE / HYBRID. MCP-aware (v1.20+): Step 3c queries mcp-nvd server for live CVE data with local audit fallback.
/perf-audit	S M L	Bundle size, serial awaits, query efficiency. 8-stack patterns.
/skill-dev	S M L	Coupling, duplication, dead code, debt-density. Step 3b (v1.22+): hotspot priority via churn × debt; top-10 ranked by 4-quadrant matrix using git log --since="6.months.ago".
/simplify	S M L	Early returns, nesting, dead code. Applies changes directly.
/commit	S M L	Conventional Commits - auto-detects type, scope, description.
/skill-security	S M L	Security scan for Claude Code skills using SkillSpector: prompt injection, data exfiltration, MCP tool poisoning, supply chain, taint tracking. 64-pattern vulnerability scanner.
/systematic-debugging	S M L	Root-cause investigation before any fix: reproduce consistently, write the hypothesis, verify against evidence, then fix the root cause, not the symptom. STOP gate between hypothesis and fix.
/api-design	M L	URL naming, HTTP verbs, response envelope, pagination.
/skill-db	M L	Schema normalization, indexes, N+1 queries, RLS.
/migration-audit	M L	Stack-aware migration safety: data loss, rollback, lock-heavy DDL. Prisma/Drizzle/Supabase/SQL.
/visual-audit	M L	Typography, spacing, hierarchy, dark-mode, micro-polish.
/ux-audit	M L	ISO 9241-11, Nielsen heuristics, user confidence.
/responsive-audit	M L	Layout at 320-1024px, tap targets, WCAG.
/ui-audit	M L	Design token compliance, component adoption, empty states.
/accessibility-audit	M L	axe-core WCAG 2.2, APCA contrast, static a11y (aria, tabindex, focus, labels).
/test-audit	M L	Coverage (lcov/Istanbul/Cobertura/go/tarpaulin/xcresult), pyramid shape, anti-patterns (.only, skipped, empty, no-assertion, sleeps).
/doc-audit	M L	Doc drift: link resolution, code-block syntax (json/yaml/toml), Tierward placeholder residuals, slash-command name match, skill-count consistency, ADR freshness, stack-sync (Next.js/Django/Swift).
/api-contract-audit	M L	OpenAPI contract drift (endpoints, schemas, status), breaking-change detection vs previous spec, versioning consistency, security scheme alignment, Richardson Maturity L0-L3 scoring. Auto-gen for FastAPI / NestJS / Express+swagger-jsdoc / Next.js route handlers / Django REST.
/infra-audit	M L	Infrastructure security across GitHub Actions (pwn-request, secret logging, pinning, permissions), Dockerfile (root, latest tag, URL add), K8s (runAsNonRoot, privileged, hostNetwork), Terraform (IAM wildcards, state in git), GitLab CI. Stack-agnostic.
/compliance-audit	M L	GDPR profile: data-subject rights (delete, export, rectify), consent, lawful basis, PII identification, encryption-at-rest on special-category, logging hygiene, retention, sub-processors. SOC 2 / HIPAA scaffolded for v1.15+.
/dependency-audit	M L	Outdated package audit: Tier A (safe batch) / B (non-core major) / C (core/breaking-risk) classification, changelog summary for Tier B/C, codebase impact grep, runtime LTS status. Stack-aware (node-ts/python/swift); agnostic fallback for other stacks. Audit-only in v1. MCP-aware (v1.20+): Step 2 queries package-registry-mcp for multi-ecosystem package metadata with WebFetch fallback.
/pr-review	M L	Autonomous local PR review via gh CLI: spawns review subagent on the diff, classifies findings (Critical / Major / Minor) using universal + stack-specific severity criteria, posts review as PR comment for audit trail. Configurable via team-settings.json prReviewSeverity. Read-only. --deep escalates to opus for sensitive changes. Also exposed as tierward_pr_review MCP tool.
/skill-review	M L	Quality review pipeline for skill portfolios. Spec compliance, cross-tier coherence, behavioral fixtures.
/dependency-scan	M L	Pipeline-integrated (Phase 1): forked-context scan that returns the full file list (routes, components, shared types, DB tables) fed into the Phase 1 STOP gate. Six structurally independent checks (C1–C6) with a "Mandatory additions" section.
/context-review	L	Pipeline-integrated (Phase 8.5): forked-context review that runs after block closure to recompact CLAUDE.md and detect context drift before the next block opens. Tier L only.
/repo-hygiene	M L	Periodic cleanup sweep: orphaned/merged branches, stray worktrees, stale .claude/session/*.md files, and (target:full) orphaned docs. Reports every finding with evidence, executes only what you confirm. Never deletes docs/*.md — those stay report-only. Distinct from the Phase 8 closure cleanup gate.

Skills are conditionally installed based on your project: hasApi, hasDatabase, hasFrontend, hasDesignSystem.

11 tech stacks auto-detected

Node.js/TS, Node.js/JS, Python, Go, Swift, Kotlin, Rust, .NET, Ruby, Java - plus generic fallback. Security rules, permissions, and CLAUDE.md fields adapt automatically.

MCP server (v1.17.0+)

The tierward package ships an MCP server (tierward-mcp binary) alongside the CLI, version-locked, single npm install -g. Any MCP-aware client (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Copilot Studio) can query Tierward governance state without the Tierward CLI running. Six read-only tools cover the doctor report, team-settings, last arch-audit, skill inventory, package metadata, and /pr-review comments. Full reference in the MCP server section below.

Tierward is also available as a Claude Code plugin in the Claude Code marketplace (v1.32.0+). Install from the marketplace to get the Tierward MCP server wired up automatically alongside your Claude Code installation.

Incremental adoption

Install individual components without a full scaffold:

npx tierward add skill security-audit   # install one skill
npx tierward add rule git                # install one rule
npx tierward add rule security           # install the security rule

Custom skills (custom-* prefix) are preserved across upgrades. See Custom Skills Guide.

---

Architecture