Compounding Engineering

Compound Engineering

AI skills that make each unit of engineering work easier than the last.

Philosophy

Each unit of engineering work should make subsequent units easier -- not harder.

Traditional development accumulates technical debt. Every feature adds complexity. Every bug fix leaves behind a little more local knowledge that someone has to rediscover later. The codebase gets larger, the context gets harder to hold, and the next change becomes slower.

Compound engineering inverts this. 80% is in planning and review, 20% is in execution:

• Plan thoroughly before writing code with /ce-brainstorm and /ce-plan using one readiness-based plan artifact
• Review to catch issues and calibrate judgment with /ce-code-review and /ce-doc-review
• Codify knowledge so it is reusable with /ce-compound
• Keep quality high so future changes are easy

The point is not ceremony. The point is leverage. A good brainstorm makes the plan sharper. A good plan makes execution smaller. A good review catches the pattern, not just the bug. A good compound note means the next agent does not have to learn the same lesson from scratch.

Learn more

• Skill documentation catalog
• Compound engineering: how Every codes with agents
• The story behind compounding engineering

Workflow

The core loop is six steps: brainstorm the requirements, plan the implementation, work through the plan, simplify what you wrote, review the result, then compound the learning -- and repeat with better context.

Each cycle compounds: /ce-compound writes learnings that the next /ce-brainstorm and /ce-plan read as grounding -- brainstorms sharpen plans, plans inform future plans, reviews catch more issues, patterns get documented. That return arrow is the whole point.

Additional skills

These sit around the loop or get reached for on demand -- not every cycle needs them.

For the full catalog and how each skill chains together, see docs/skills. The complete inventory is below.

Quick Example

Finding a direction -- when you don't have a specific idea yet, ideate first, then carry the strongest survivor into the loop:

/ce-ideate new drawing tools
/ce-ideate surprise me
/ce-ideate github issues   # ground ideas in your open issues instead of a prompt

/ce-ideate does the homework first (codebase, past learnings, prior art on the web, optionally your issue tracker), then hands you a ranked set of grounded candidates to take into /ce-brainstorm.

Standard feature loop -- turn a rough idea into shipped, reviewed code:

/ce-brainstorm make background job retries safer
/ce-plan
/ce-work
/ce-simplify-code
/ce-code-review
/ce-compound

Simplifying code -- use it after fresh implementation work, or point it at code that keeps slowing changes down:

/ce-simplify-code
/ce-simplify-code simplify the code in my most-churned file

The first pass tightens recent branch changes before review. The targeted pass is useful when one file keeps absorbing unrelated fixes, follow-ups, or merge conflicts.

Debugging a bug -- when you start from broken behavior instead of a feature:

/ce-debug the checkout webhook sometimes creates duplicate invoices
/ce-code-review
/ce-compound

Autonomous -- hand off a feature and let the agent run the whole pipeline:

/ce-brainstorm describe the feature
/lfg

/lfg runs the loop hands-off: it plans, works through the plan, simplifies, runs code review and applies the fixes, runs browser tests, commits, pushes, opens a PR, then watches CI and repairs failures until it's green. Start it after /ce-brainstorm so it plans against real requirements rather than a one-line prompt. It's the autopilot version of the standard loop -- neat when you want to step away and come back to an open, green PR.

Getting Started

After installing, run /ce-setup in any project. It checks repo-local config, reports optional tool capabilities, and helps keep machine-local CE settings safely gitignored.

The compound-engineering plugin currently ships 29 skills and 0 standalone agents. Specialist review, research, and workflow behavior lives inside the owning skills as skill-local prompt assets.

Full Skill Inventory

Install

Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin
/plugin install compound-engineering

Already have Compound Engineering installed? Compound Engineering moved to a root-native layout. You must refresh the marketplace before updating — see Existing Installs. Running /plugin update alone keeps you on the old version.

Cursor

In Cursor Agent chat, install from the plugin marketplace:

/add-plugin compound-engineering

Or search for "compound engineering" in the plugin marketplace.

Codex App

Compound Engineering is not listed in Codex's built-in plugin marketplace yet. Add it as a custom marketplace:

1. In the Codex app, open Plugins from the sidebar.

2. Click Add / Add plugin marketplace.

3. Enter:

   Field	Value
   Source	EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin
   Git ref	main
   Sparse paths	leave blank

4. Click Add marketplace.

5. Select Compound Engineering, install compound-engineering, then restart Codex.

The Codex app install is self-contained for Compound Engineering. Specialist reviewer and research behavior lives inside the skills as local prompt assets; no separate custom-agent install step is required.

Codex CLI

Register the marketplace, then install the plugin.

1. Register the marketplace with Codex:

   codex plugin marketplace add EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin

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2. Install the plugin:

   codex plugin add compound-engineering@compound-engineering-plugin

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   You can also launch codex, run /plugins, find the Compound Engineering marketplace, select the compound-engineering plugin, and choose Install. Restart Codex after install completes.

The native Codex plugin install is self-contained for Compound Engine

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