claude-cortex 4.4.3

Context orchestration CLI with curated agents, rules, skills, and management tools for Claude Code

Multi-model development orchestration for Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini.

Documentation · Install · Quick Start

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Cortex is a development orchestration framework that coordinates AI agents across model providers. It enforces quality gates — independent code review, test coverage audits, and lint checks — so that no agent grades its own homework. The result is a structured, auditable development workflow where Claude, Codex, and Gemini collaborate with built-in verification at every step.

How It Works

Multi-model review with no self-review

Cortex's core principle: the agent that writes the code never reviews it. When Codex implements a feature, the review is routed to Claude first, then to a different model family, with same-model review as a last resort. Every review produces a structured artifact with severity levels and a pass/fail verdict.

Codex implements → Claude reviews → Codex remediates → Claude re-reviews
                   ↓ (unavailable)
                   Gemini reviews (fallback)
                   ↓ (unavailable)
                   Fresh-context Codex reviews (last resort)

Agent-loops: progressive quality gates

Every code change flows through three sequential loops, each with circuit breakers and escalation rules:

Code Change Loop    →  Implement → Independent review → Remediate P0/P1 → Re-review (max 3 cycles)
Test Writing Loop   →  Audit gaps → Write tests → Verify → Re-audit (max 3 cycles)
Lint Gate           →  Discover linter → Auto-fix → Check → Remediate (max 2 cycles)

P0/P1 findings must be resolved before the loop exits. P2/P3 findings are filed as issues automatically. If circuit breakers trigger, the agent stops and escalates to a human — no infinite remediation loops.

Skill recommendations

Skills are suggested automatically as you work via a two-layer pipeline: fast keyword matching on every prompt (~50ms), with optional semantic matching for deeper recommendations. The TUI runs a background watch daemon for continuous suggestions.

What's Inside

Path	Purpose
agents/	Agent definitions (specialized reviewers, implementers)
skills/	Reusable skill modules — workflow guidance, review prompts, quality standards
rules/	Behavioral guardrails and coding conventions
hooks/	Automation hooks (skill suggestions, validation gates)
claude_ctx_py/	Python CLI and TUI implementation

Key skills

• agent-loops — The core workflow: structured implementation with independent review, test audit, and lint gates. Includes provider-aware review scripts with fallback chains.
• test-review — Test quality and coverage auditing across modules.
• doc-claim-validator — Validates documentation claims against actual code.
• doc-maintenance — Systematic documentation audit and lifecycle management.

Install

# Recommended
pipx install claude-cortex

# Alternative
pip install claude-cortex

For development:

git clone https://github.com/NickCrew/claude-cortex.git
cd claude-cortex
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Quick Start

cortex install link          # Symlink bundled assets into ~/.claude
cortex install post          # Shell completions + man pages (optional)
cortex status                # Check what's active
cortex tui                   # Launch the terminal UI

CLI Overview

cortex <command> [options]

Command	What it does
status	Show active agents, rules, hooks, skills
agent list|status	Manage agent definitions
skills list|info|recommend	Discover and inspect skills
rules list|activate	Manage behavioral rules
hooks list|install	Install and validate hooks
mcp list|diagnose	MCP server discovery and diagnostics
ai recommend|watch	AI-powered skill recommendations
review	Run review workflows
tui	Launch terminal UI
docs	Browse bundled documentation
install|uninstall	Manage Cortex installation

Run cortex --help or cortex <command> --help for details.

Development

just test                    # Run test suite
just lint                    # Check formatting (Black)
just type-check              # Strict mypy
just docs                    # Serve docs locally

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Documentation

Full documentation at cortex.atlascrew.dev.

• Getting Started
• Commands Reference
• Skills Guide
• Architecture
• Skill Recommendation Engine
• CHANGELOG

License

MIT. See LICENSE.