mainbranch 0.2.4

Main Branch engine umbrella - scaffolds, validates, and graphs business-as-files repos. Claude Code first, runtime-agnostic by design.

mainbranch (mb)

Engine umbrella for Main Branch — scaffolds, validates, and graphs business-as-files repos.

This package is the Python entry point. Workflows, playbooks, educational content, and consumer-repo templates ship as bundled package data. Today, the day-to-day "do work" surfaces are packaged as Claude Code skills (markdown), invoked from inside Claude Code. The mb CLI is runtime-agnostic by design: future adapters should let Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, and local runtimes operate against the same business-as-files repo.

The source tree keeps the engine payload in one place: repo-root .claude/. During sdist/wheel builds, setup.py copies that tree into mb/_engine/.claude/ inside the build artifact so installed wheels can resolve skills, playbooks, reference files, lenses, and educational prompts without a source checkout.

Install

pipx install mainbranch

That puts mb on your PATH. Verify:

mb --version

Subcommands

Command	What it does
mb onboard	Human setup flow. Creates or connects a business repo, explains the local files/git/GitHub substrate, wires Claude Code skills, verifies discovery, and prints the next /mb-start step. Supports --yes and --json for smoke tests.
mb init	Scaffold a new business repo (six folders, CLAUDE.md, CODEOWNERS, git init) and wire the bundled Claude Code skill adapter. One question only: business name.
mb doctor	Diagnostic. Checks Claude Code, gh auth, network, librsvg, runtime wiring, and package freshness. Warns on cloud-backed finance paths and offers educational triage.
mb status	Daily briefing. Summarizes repo shape, install/runtime readiness, recent brain files, recent git activity, and GitHub tasks when gh is authenticated. Supports --json.
mb start	Runtime handoff. Verifies the current business repo, git, Claude Code, and /mb-start skill wiring, then prints the exact claude command or launches it with --launch. Supports --json.
mb validate	Frontmatter shape check across decisions/, core/offers/, research/, log/, campaigns/, documents/. Exit 1 on any fail.
mb graph	Walk linked_research / linked_decisions / supersedes; emit Graphviz DOT to stdout. --open shells to dot + open.
mb update	Refresh the Main Branch engine according to install mode (pipx upgrade or clone git pull) and repair skill links. --check dry-runs; --json emits an envelope.
mb migrate	Inspect and apply numbered repo schema migrations. status, --check, and --apply support --json; --check prints privacy-safe summaries by default, with full diffs behind --diff.
mb think <topic>	Print the /mb-think workflow invocation hint for the currently supported runtime.
mb resolve <key>	Resolve a reference path (checks free first, then paid).
mb skill path <name>	Print the on-disk path to a bundled skill.
mb skill link --repo <path>	Wire or repair Claude Code skill discovery for a business repo. Future runtime adapters should get equivalent wiring commands.
mb skill repair --repo <path>	Detect personal Claude Code skills that shadow Main Branch and safely back up stale Main Branch symlinks with --apply.
mb educational <topic>	Print an educational triage file. Powers mb doctor's "tell me more" prompts.

Users on early 0.1.x installs must bootstrap once with pipx upgrade mainbranch before mb update exists locally. Existing business repos should run mb skill link --repo ., then mb skill repair --repo . after upgrading.

Status

Main Branch is Claude Code first with a strong CLI front door: mb onboard, mb status, mb start, and mb update are public package surfaces. Runtime compatibility for Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes, and local runtimes remains roadmap work. The schema is v1 and will evolve. The runtime boundary decision lives at decisions/2026-05-01-mb-cli-vs-agent-workflows-boundary.md; the engine master decision lives at decisions/2026-04-29-mb-vip-v0-1-0-master.md.

License

MIT.