---

uv tool install drydock-sdd
# configure a workspace before: drydock init MyApp

Drydock runs on your existing Claude or Codex subscription CLI. It does not require API keys or per-token API billing.

Drydock adds the missing process layer to specification-driven development: import source material, analyze it into stories and acceptance criteria, review decisions in the QuarterDeck, plan a dependency graph, build one context-optimized step at a time, verify evidence, and keep the Blueprint and software aligned as the product changes.

You are the Commander — the product owner. The LLM is your Agile delivery team. Drydock makes that relationship explicit, reviewable, and repeatable.

Copyright (c) 2026 Web Cloud Studio. Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

60-Second Example

uv tool install drydock-sdd

export PROJECTS="$HOME/projects"
mkdir -p "$PROJECTS/drydock"

drydock config set drydock_workspace "$PROJECTS/drydock"
drydock config set drydock_build_directory "$PROJECTS"
drydock config set llm_provider claude
drydock init MyApp --description "A small web application."
drydock import MyApp ./notes --format markdown
drydock analyze MyApp
drydock run quarterdeck MyApp
drydock plan MyApp
drydock build status MyApp
drydock build MyApp
drydock score ac MyApp
drydock score release MyApp

That loop creates a Target workspace, decomposes the source material, opens the Commander review surface, builds a dependency graph, executes the first runnable frontier with persisted evidence, verifies programmatic acceptance, and evaluates the release gate.

What Drydock Is

Drydock is an installable Python command-line package. The PyPI distribution is drydock-sdd; the installed command is drydock.

Drydock implements the SAIL methodology:

Phase	Purpose	Primary commands
Set Up	Install, configure, and initialize a Target workspace	config, init, status
Analyze	Import material and decompose it into stories, blockers, and acceptance milestones	import, analyze, run quarterdeck, plan
Implement	Build the Manifest frontier and verify evidence	build, build status, score ac, score release, rigging, document
Loop	Manage change while preserving the Blueprint as source of truth	refit, build, document

The core idea is simple: reproducible LLM builds require a process. Drydock uses Agile structure, explicit product-owner review, durable evidence, and context-managed build prompts so generated software can be inspected, repeated, and iterated.

Subscription CLI Requirement

Drydock is for subscription-authenticated CLI users.

It does not use API-key-backed model calls and does not require per-token API billing. LLM-assisted commands execute through a locally authenticated provider CLI:

• claude for Anthropic Claude subscription CLI users.
• codex for OpenAI Codex subscription CLI users.

Set the provider with:

drydock config set llm_provider claude
# or
drydock config set llm_provider codex

The provider CLI must already be installed, authenticated, and available on PATH. Deterministic commands such as status, validate, document assemble, and publish do not call an LLM.

Install

Python 3.11 or later is required.

Recommended:

uv tool install drydock-sdd

Alternative:

pipx install drydock-sdd

Virtual environment install:

python -m pip install drydock-sdd

Verify:

drydock --version
drydock --help

PDF publishing (drydock publish --pdf) is optional and requires the pdf extra plus a local Chromium download:

uv tool install "drydock-sdd[pdf]"
playwright install chromium

See the User Installation Guide for the full installation guide.

Workspace skills

drydock init provisions Drydock's shipped workspace skills into both .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/ in the configured workspace. The Loop skills include /refit, which captures a design discussion in the Target, and /apply-refit, which turns approved decisions into change tickets. See Drydock skills for usage.

Quick Start

Create one projects directory, configure Drydock's workspace and build output root, and initialize a Target.

export PROJECTS="$HOME/projects"
mkdir -p "$PROJECTS/drydock"

drydock config set drydock_workspace "$PROJECTS/drydock"
drydock config set drydock_build_directory "$PROJECTS"
drydock config set llm_provider claude

drydock init MyApp --display-name "My App" --description "A working software product."
drydock status

Import source material and run the planning loop:

drydock import MyApp ./notes --format markdown
drydock analyze MyApp
drydock run quarterdeck MyApp
drydock plan MyApp
drydock build status MyApp

Build one frontier at a time, then score acceptance and release readiness:

drydock build MyApp
drydock build status MyApp
drydock score ac MyApp
drydock score release MyApp

The Target workspace lives under:

$DRYDOCK_WORKSPACE/targets/<Target>/

The generated application is written under:

$DRYDOCK_BUILD_DIRECTORY/<Target>/

Why It Is Different

Drydock is not a prompt collection and it is not a one-shot code generator. It is a delivery system with durable artifacts:

• Blueprint: typed Markdown specifications that remain the source of truth.
• Manifest: the executable dependency graph for build order, dependencies, and state.
• QuarterDeck: the web review surface where the product owner answers questions, reviews stories, and directs the process.
• Compass files: persistent product-owner intent injected into the right command runs.
• Soundings: acceptance checklist and implementation evidence.
• Sea Trials: product-level objectives and proof-of-delivery criteria.
• Rigging: shared branding, stack rules, templates, and compact context derivatives.
• Execution logs: reproducible prompt, raw output, stderr, event, and result artifacts.

The Commander is the product owner. The LLM is treated as an Agile delivery team. Drydock's job is to make that relationship explicit, reviewable, and repeatable.

Current Release Status

Drydock 0.1.5 is an beta release. The primary SAIL path is implemented, but the command surface and Typed Specification contracts remain unstable during the 0.x series:

• Workspace configuration and Target initialization.
• Markdown, source tree, Spec Kit, and Compass import.
• LLM-assisted analysis with blockers, questionnaires, Soundings, Sea Trials, and Commander review artifacts.
• LLM-assisted planning into typed Blueprint files and MANIFEST.md.
• Manifest-frontier build execution, evidence capture, and human verification.
• Refit change-ticket conformance and applied-spec drift reconciliation.
• QuarterDeck runtime for review and process navigation.
• Rigging manifest registration, compaction, update, and verification.
• Target documentation generation and assembly.
• Deterministic Markdown publishing to HTML and optional PDF.
• Deterministic acceptance verification and release-gate evaluation.

drydock score ac <Target> deterministically verifies each Programmatic Acceptance assertion and writes SOUNDINGS.md. drydock score release <Target> evaluates Sea Trials and writes SCORECARD.md.

drydock score drydock takes no Target. It runs an adversarial self-assessment of Drydock itself — the specification, every prompt contract, and the command process — against Agile decomposition, Test Driven Development, context economy, and governance, and writes ranked feature files with Agile stories and TDD acceptance criteria to docs/drydock_planning/. It requires a source checkout, recommends rather than changes anything, and defaults to the highest available model at maximum reasoning effort. --effort selects the reasoning depth for the run.

The installed wheel includes Drydock's canonical product specification as a read-only package resource at drydock/resources/docs/Drydock_Specification.md.

Command Surface

Every command accepts the invocation-wide overrides --model <model>, --effort <low|medium|high|xhigh|max>, and --llm-provider <claude|codex>. --effort selects reasoning depth for the LLM-assisted commands; the level maps onto what the selected provider and model serve. Precedence is --effort, then the prompt's declared effort, then drydock_effort, then the provider's own default.

drydock --help
drydock --version

drydock config show
drydock config set <key> <value>

drydock init <Target> [--display-name <name>] [--description <desc>]
drydock status [<Target>] [--check | --ready]
drydock validate <Target> [--verbose]
drydock run quarterdeck [<Target>] [--host HOST] [--port PORT]

drydock import <Target> <Source> [--format <auto|markdown|source|speckit|compass|intent>] [--force]
drydock analyze <Target> [--model <model>] [--llm-provider <claude|codex>]
drydock plan [--overwrite] [--no-conform] <Target> [--model <model>] [--llm-provider <claude|codex>]

drydock build <Target> [--step <step-id>] [--force] [--build-dir <path>] [--reset-failed] [--normalize-order] [--dry-run] [--show-prompt]
drydock build status <Target>
drydock score ac <Target>
drydock score release <Target>
drydock score drydock [--model <model>] [--llm-provider <claude|codex>]

drydock rigging compact [<Target>] [--all] [--force] [--include-file <file.md>] [--exclude-file <file.md>] [--include-dir <dir>]
drydock rigging update <Target> [--dry-run]
drydock rigging verify <Target>

drydock document generate <Target> [--model <model>]
drydock document assemble <Target> [--theme <theme>]
drydock document assemble readme <Target>
drydock document <Target> [--model <model>] [--theme <theme>]

drydock publish <Source.md> --output <Output.html> [--theme <theme>] [--flatten] [--pdf] [--pdf-output <Output.pdf>]

Configuration keys:

Key	Environment override	Purpose
drydock_workspace	DRYDOCK_WORKSPACE	Workspace containing targets/ and Drydock logs
drydock_build_directory	DRYDOCK_BUILD_DIRECTORY	Root where generated applications are written
drydock_model	DRYDOCK_MODEL	Default model for LLM-assisted commands
drydock_effort	DRYDOCK_EFFORT	Default reasoning effort: low, medium, high, xhigh, max; unset keeps the provider default
llm_provider	LLM_PROVIDER	Subscription CLI provider: claude or codex
prompt_warn_tokens	PROMPT_WARN_TOKENS	Prompt-size warning threshold in tokens
quarterdeck_port	QUARTERDECK_PORT	Default QuarterDeck port
diagnose	DRYDOCK_DIAGNOSE	Standoff diagnosis of opaque failures; --no-diagnose suppresses it for one run

Public Documentation

Public hub and launch materials:

• Web Cloud Studio
• Drydock GitHub repository
• Canonical Drydock specification
• Launch deck and presentation
• Launch video
• Improving Step Accuracy in Specification-Driven Development

Repository references:

• Install Drydock
• Drydock specification source
• Rendered specification HTML
• Rendered specification PDF
• Launch script
• Talking points

Development and governance:

• Contributing
• Release process (maintainer runbook)
• Drydock skills
• PyPI name reservation notes
• Launch distribution plan

Source Development

Install from a source checkout:

git clone https://github.com/webcloudstudio/Drydock.git
cd Drydock
uv venv
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run local verification:

python -m pytest
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format --check src/ tests/

Build release artifacts:

python -m hatchling build

After the editable install, run the installed console entry point against the source tree:

drydock --help

Security Model

Drydock assembles prompts deterministically and runs the selected provider CLI as a subprocess. Execution evidence is persisted under Drydock logs so a run can be audited.

Provider handling is intentionally subscription-oriented:

• API-key environment variables are not the intended execution path.
• Claude and Codex are run through isolated command wrappers.
• Build commands operate against the configured Target workspace and generated application directory.
• Tests use injected runners and never require network or paid API access.

See the "Drydock Security" section in docs/Drydock_Specification.md for the current provider execution contracts.

License

MIT - Copyright (c) 2026 Web Cloud Studio. See LICENSE.

"Drydock" is a trademark of Web Cloud Studio; see NOTICE for use of the name in forks and derivative works. See CONTRIBUTORS.md for the project's contributors.