amplihack Expert Knowledge

What is amplihack?

Engineering system for coding CLIs (Claude, Copilot, Amplifier): 5 mechanisms, 23-step workflow, 30+ agents, 80+ skills. Core entry point:

/dev

— unified task orchestrator with auto-classification, parallel workstream detection, and goal-seeking execution loop.

Quick Reference

Top Commands

Command

Purpose

Use When

/dev

Orchestrate

Any non-trivial task

/analyze

Review

Check compliance

/fix

Fix errors

Common error patterns

/amplihack:ddd:*

Doc-driven dev

10+ file features

/multitask

Parallel tasks

Sprint/batch work

Top Agents

Agent

Role

architect

Design

builder

Code

reviewer

Quality

tester

Tests

Workflows

Name

Steps

DEFAULT_WORKFLOW

23

INVESTIGATION

6

FIX

3

Navigation Guide

Quick

SKILL.md |

Architecture

reference.md |

How-To

examples.md |

Deep

all

Core Concepts

5 Mechanisms:

Workflow (process), Command (entry), Skill (auto), Agent (delegate), Hook (runtime)

Composition:

Commands → Workflows → Agents → Skills

Execution:

/dev

orchestrates — classifies task, detects parallel workstreams, executes via smart-orchestrator recipe, goal-seeking loop (3 rounds max)

Entry point:

/dev

→ dev-orchestrator skill → smart-orchestrator recipe → default-workflow recipe

dev-orchestrator Architecture

Entry point

:

/dev

or any non-trivial prompt

Routing:

Q&A →

amplihack:core:analyzer

responds directly

Operations → bash (simple) or

amplihack:core:builder

(complex)

Development/Investigation → smart-orchestrator recipe (full orchestration)

Execution flow:

Classify task (architect agent → JSON decomposition)

Detect workstreams (1 = single session, 2-5 = parallel via multitask)

Register session in tree (depth/capacity enforcement)

Execute rounds (up to 3, goal-seeking reflection loop)

Summarize results with PR links and GOAL_STATUS

Session tree

Prevents infinite recursion AMPLIHACK_MAX_DEPTH=3 (default) — increase to 5 for deep orchestration AMPLIHACK_MAX_SESSIONS=10 (default) — max concurrent sessions per tree Status signals: GOAL_STATUS: ACHIEVED — all criteria met GOAL_STATUS: PARTIAL -- [gaps] — another round will run GOAL_STATUS: NOT_ACHIEVED -- [reason] — final failure status Related Docs reference.md: Architecture (5 mechanisms, 5 layers, hooks) examples.md: Scenarios (5+ real examples) @~/.amplihack/.claude/context/PHILOSOPHY.md: Core principles @~/.amplihack/.claude/workflow/DEFAULT_WORKFLOW.md: 23 steps @~/.amplihack/.claude/agents/amplihack/: All agents @~/.amplihack/.claude/commands/amplihack/: All commands @~/.amplihack/.claude/tools/amplihack/hooks/: Hook system amplifier-bundle/recipes/smart-orchestrator.yaml: Core orchestration recipe amplifier-bundle/tools/session_tree.py: Recursion guard (depth limits) amplifier-bundle/tools/orch_helper.py: JSON extraction helper