One instruction architecture for humans and agents. Eight layers, each with a single job — and checks that stop the line the moment a layer drifts.
Prompts pile up. Layers restate each other, jobs go stale, and nobody notices until an agent misbehaves. Jidoka takes the Toyota path: build quality into the process itself. One layered architecture where every layer owns a single job and carries a machine-checkable budget — so a defect traces to exactly one layer, and the line stops before it ships.
Each layer loads at the right moment and owns one concern. Auto-loaded layers stay budgeted so context never bloats; on-demand layers disclose only when the work calls for them.
Harness mechanics: turns, tool calls, the completion signal. Nothing about your project.
Project identity — what it is, who it serves, and where to find its jobs and checklists.
Contribution standards and the jobs each persona hires the work to do.
One persona — voice, skill routing, and scope constraints. Boundaries, not steps.
Cross-cutting protocols shared across agents: memory, coordination, approval.
The complete, imperative steps for one domain of work — no tribal knowledge required.
The data a procedure consults: templates, worked examples, lookup tables.
Binary verification at a pause point. No explanation — just confirmation.
Three well-publicized ideas answer the halves of the problem — and together they explain why the layers are shaped the way they are, and why the checks stop the line.
How quality holds. It is built into the process, not inspected in afterward — the checks halt at the first defect and never pass one downstream.
What agents align to. Every layer traces to the progress a persona seeks in a specific circumstance — not to a feature list.
How alignment holds under load. Structured instructions keep existing knowledge consistently applied — by humans and agents alike.
Checklists never teach — they confirm; if an item needs explaining, the procedure above it is incomplete. Each gate is wrapped in a semantic <read_do_checklist> or <do_confirm_checklist> tag, so every pause point in the repository is one rg search away — no map required.
Read each item, then do it. Loads constraints into memory before the first line of work, when missing one sends everything in the wrong direction.
rg '<read_do_checklist'
Do from memory, then pause and confirm. Verifies nothing was missed before a commit, merge, or release — independent checks, no interruption mid-flow.
rg '<do_confirm_checklist'
Install the skill pack. Tell Claude to set it up.
Then wire the jidoka binary (or npx @forwardimpact/jidoka) into your checks, so the line stops at the first drifted layer. Read the full standard in JIDOKA.md.