Kaizen

Architecture-driven modernization. Audit trail ships by default. Decompose legacy codebases into editable Architectural Decision Records (ADRs), recompose to modern stacks — compliance is what good architecture produces, not a feature you bolt on.

The ADR is the product. Every architectural decision is cited to file:line in the source, reviewable as markdown, signable for compliance. The code generation is downstream of the contract — a human reviewer can accept, edit, or reject decisions before any modern code is written.

Install

# Recommended: isolated install, no virtualenv needed
pipx install kaizen-3c-cli

# uv (faster resolver)
uv tool install kaizen-3c-cli

# pip
pip install kaizen-3c-cli

Also available without Python:

winget install Kaizen3C.KaizenCLI          # Windows
npm install -g kaizen-cli                  # any platform with Node
brew tap Kaizen-3C/tap && brew install kaizen-cli  # macOS / Linux

Requires Python 3.10+ (pipx/uv/pip installs only). You will also need:

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY in your environment (or a local .env file).
• Rust toolchain (cargo) if using --recompose for C/C++ → Rust memory-safety work.
• .NET SDK (dotnet) if using --recompose for framework-migration work targeting .NET 8.

Quick start

Memory safety roadmap (C/C++ → Rust)

For CISA memory-safety roadmap compliance. Produces a CISA-format roadmap markdown + per-module ADR stubs.

kaizen memsafe-roadmap ./my-c-lib \
  --output roadmap.md \
  --adr-dir ./adrs \
  --glob "*" \
  --provider openai

# Plain mode (no --domain schema — sufficient for most cases):
kaizen memsafe-roadmap ./my-c-lib --plain -o roadmap.md

# With Rust code generation:
kaizen memsafe-roadmap ./my-c-lib --recompose --rust-output ./rust-port

Framework migration plan (.NET Framework → .NET 8, AngularJS → Angular, etc.)

kaizen migrate-plan ./legacy-csharp-project \
  --from dotnet-framework --to dotnet8 \
  --output migration-plan.md \
  --provider openai

Supported transitions: angularjs->angular, angularjs->react, jquery->react, dotnet-framework->dotnet8, dotnet-framework->dotnet9, python2->python3, spring4->spring-boot3, java8->java17, java8->java21.

Dry-run first

kaizen memsafe-roadmap ./my-c-lib --dry-run
kaizen migrate-plan ./project --from angularjs --to angular --dry-run

Prints the planned pipeline steps without calling any LLM. Use it to check paths, glob patterns, and provider settings before spending tokens.

Why this instead of one-shot AI coding tools?

Measured on 2 case studies at temperature=0:

The ADR-as-contract closes ~83–100% of the "will it compile?" gap that one-shot LLMs leave open. The --domain memory-safe / --domain framework-migration schema flags add enterprise-tier plan-document richness (CISA-format roadmap, API-contract tables, dependency upgrade paths) on top.

The one-shot baseline control is shipped with the CLI — run oneshot_baseline.py on the same source to measure the delta on your own code.

Positioning vs. alternatives

• vs. LegacyLeap (full-lifecycle enterprise modernization platform) — we ship only the ADR + recompose pieces; cloud-agnostic; developer-led distribution.
• vs. Amazon Q Developer Transform (Java 8 → 17 auto-upgrade) — we're LLM-agnostic (Anthropic or OpenAI), cloud-agnostic (runs on a laptop or air-gapped), cover broader language pairs, and expose the ADR as editable intermediate.
• vs. Google Jules / OpenHands / SWE-agent (generic AI coding agents) — we're synchronous + deterministic (temperature=0 default); auditable ADR artifact; different trust model for architecture-driven workflows where compliance is the goal architecture serves.

The ADR-as-contract claim, measured

Three-arm ablation (case study):

• One-shot LLM (no pipeline): 6 errors on cargo check.
• Kaizen plain ADR (no domain schema): 1 error. +5 errors closed by the ADR alone.
• Kaizen + --domain memory-safe: 0 errors. +1 additional error closed by the domain schema.

The plain ADR pipeline captures ~83% of the measurable value. The domain schemas are enterprise polish. Commercially, this is an open-core model: free plain ADR, paid domain schemas + audit-log + air-gapped deployment.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.

Contributing / Issues

https://github.com/Kaizen-3C/kaizen-cli

Status

1.0.0 — Alpha. CLI subcommands memsafe-roadmap, migrate-plan, run, priors, status are end-to-end. PyPI package bundles the pipeline scripts via sdist for now; Phase C will move them under cli/pipeline/ as a proper subpackage.

Case studies:

• inih C → Rust (Phase A, three-arm)
• Nancy NancyContext.cs .NET Fx → .NET 8 (Phase B, three-arm)
• adr-tools bash → Python (prior-session cross-language reference)

See docs/markets/ for the product wedge docs (memory safety + framework modernization) and ARCHITECTURE_VALUE_MATRIX.md for the honest value claims backed by data.