Get Started
Install
Section titled “Install”claude plugin marketplace add ThinkUpfront/Upfrontclaude plugin install upfrontRestart Claude Code. Done.
Your first feature
Section titled “Your first feature”Type this:
/upfront:featureThat’s it. The AI takes over from here:
- It asks what problem you’re solving — not what you want to build, what problem goes away. It pushes back if your answer is vague.
- It walks you through the behavioral spec — user stories, mechanism, states, concurrency, error cases. It challenges your thinking at each step.
- It researches your codebase — finds relevant patterns, presents options, lets you make the decisions.
- It proposes the implementation design — and challenges the codebase itself, flagging structural issues before you build on them.
At the end, you have a spec in specs/ that captures every decision, why it was made, and what was rejected.
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”The AI tells you. At the end of /upfront:feature, it says:
“Spec is ready. Next step: run
/upfront:planto break this into implementation phases.”
After /upfront:plan, it says:
“Plan is ready. Next step: run
/upfront:buildto start building.”
You don’t need to memorize the workflow. Each skill hands off to the next one.
That might be all you need
Section titled “That might be all you need”For most work, the path is:
/upfront:feature → /upfront:plan → /upfront:buildThree commands. The AI guides each transition.
Not sure yet? Spike it.
Section titled “Not sure yet? Spike it.”If you need to see the idea before you can spec it:
/upfront:spikeDescribe what you want. The AI builds a rapid prototype — fake UI, mock data, happy path only. You react to something concrete instead of specifying in the abstract. If the idea works, the spike feeds directly into /upfront:feature with most of the thinking already done. If it doesn’t, kill it. Either way, the debt is tracked.
When you need more
Section titled “When you need more”The core flow covers most work. The rest of the toolkit is there when your ambitions are bigger:
/upfront:vision— when you’re building something large and need strategic clarity before breaking it into pieces/upfront:spike— when you need to test an idea before committing to a full spec/upfront:increment— when you’re between increments of a larger vision and need to reflect before moving on/upfront:ideate— when you don’t know what to build yet and need to find a problem worth solving/upfront:architect— when the codebase has structural debt and you need an evolution plan/upfront:explore— when you need to understand an unfamiliar codebase before working in it
These are optional. You don’t need them to get value from Upfront. But when a project is big enough to warrant strategic thinking, they’re there.
The system will nudge you when it thinks you need one. If your feature is too big to review, /upfront:feature will suggest /upfront:vision. If your problem is vague, it’ll suggest /upfront:ideate. You don’t need to memorize which skill to use — the system routes you.
Or just type /upfront:up and it figures out where you are and what you need.
Quick reference
Section titled “Quick reference”| What you’re doing | Type this |
|---|---|
| Build a feature | /upfront:feature |
| Test an idea first | /upfront:spike |
| Small fix or bug | /upfront:quick |
| Not sure where to start | /upfront:up |