ortus 0.1.3

Global Python CLI for ortus: bd-driven Claude Code workflows

Ortus

Ortus (Latin: "rising, origin, birth") — the point from which something springs into being.

Ortus autonomously closes a backlog of bd-tracked issues using Claude Code, one fresh subprocess per task. Inspired by the Ralph Loop concept: fresh window per task, drive the queue to zero, no context drift.

Install

Requires uv on PATH. Ortus is distributed via PyPI and installed by uv; we don't auto-install uv.

One-liner (recommended):

curl -fsSL https://github.com/who/ortus/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Direct PyPI:

uv tool install ortus
ortus --version

From source / pinned commit:

uv tool install git+https://github.com/who/ortus.git
# Pin a specific tag/branch:
uv tool install 'git+https://github.com/who/ortus.git@v0.1.0'

Troubleshooting:

Symptom	Fix
uv: command not found	Install uv: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh (see uv docs)
ortus: command not found after install	uv tool update-shell then open a new shell
bd: command not found	brew install beads (mac) or grab a release from https://github.com/gastownhall/beads/releases

Quick start

# Install Ortus globally (system-wide — don't add ortus as a project dependency)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/who/ortus/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

# Bootstrap YOUR project
cd your-project
ortus init .

# Verify prereqs (bd, claude, jq, hooks, sandbox)
ortus check .

# Decompose a PRD into bd issues
ortus plan . path/to/feature.md

# Or run the idea→interview→PRD→tasks flow with no PRD path
ortus plan .

# Drive the bd queue to zero — one task per fresh /goal subprocess
ortus grind .

# Bounded: stop after N tasks
ortus grind . --tasks 5

Note: Ortus is a global CLI you install once and use everywhere. You don't clone this repository into your project — ortus init only adds a small set of per-project files (.beads/, .claude/settings.json, AGENTS.md, .ortusrc, .gitignore) to an existing directory. It is not a Python dependency.

The eight verbs

Verb	Purpose
ortus init <repo>	Bootstrap a fresh repo with bd + .claude/settings.json + AGENTS.md + .ortusrc + .gitignore
ortus check <repo>	Verify bd/claude/jq + sandbox prereq + hook-enabled + settings shape; strictly read-only
ortus plan <repo> [<PRD>]	Decompose a PRD into bd issues, or interview-then-PRD-then-decompose if no PRD path
ortus grind <repo>	Drive the bd queue, one task per fresh claude -p '/goal …' subprocess
ortus interview <repo> [<feature-id>]	Interactive PRD-building interview for an open feature
ortus tail <repo>	Follow logs/{grind,goal,ralph}-*.log with stream-json filtering
ortus triage <repo>	Walk the human-flagged bd queue interactively
ortus human <repo>	Render HUMAN-TODO.md from bd issues flagged for a human decision

Run ortus <verb> --help for flags. Run ortus --version for the installed version.

Supported platforms

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux (Ubuntu/WSL2)	full	requires bubblewrap for ortus grind
macOS	full	Seatbelt (sandbox-exec) is built-in

Windows is not supported (decision 2026-05-17). Windows users should run ortus inside WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux), where ortus runs as a normal Linux process.

Prerequisites

Tool	Why	Install
uv	install + run ortus	docs.astral.sh/uv
bd (beads) v1.0.0+	issue tracking (backed by embedded Dolt)	brew install beads or GH release
claude	the model running inside ortus grind	Claude Code
jq	bd JSON post-processing	brew install jq / apt install jq
bwrap (Linux) or sandbox-exec (Mac)	OS-level sandbox for ortus grind	apt install bubblewrap / built into macOS

Optional: CodeGraph. If .codegraph/ exists in a project, ortus grind's prompts use it for faster symbol/caller/callee lookups; otherwise the loop falls back to grep + Read.

Why ortus

• One install, all projects. uv tool install ortus once; every repo uses the same canonical tooling. No more copier update chasing N repos.
• bd ready IS the queue. No README task lists, no TodoWrite scratchpads. The queue is data.
• /goal IS the loop. Termination is a hook decision based on observable bd state, not a sentinel grep.
• Sandboxed by default. ortus grind refuses to launch unless bwrap/Seatbelt is available; cache directories are project-local; network is allowlist-only via .claude/settings.json.

Configuration

Optional <repo>/.ortusrc (TOML) overrides ~/.ortusrc:

prefix = "myproj"       # bd issue-id prefix
project_type = "python" # python | typescript | go | rust | polyglot

Per-repo or user-wide prompt overrides live at <repo>/.ortus/prompts/<name>.md or ~/.ortus/prompts/<name>.md; the bundled defaults under src/ortus/prompts/ are the fallback (FR-025).

Session-close protocol

When ending a work session, push your work:

bd close <id> --reason "..."
git add -A && git commit -m "..."
bd dolt push
git push

Work is not done until pushed. The generated AGENTS.md repeats this in every project.

Development

# Local editable install
uv pip install -e '.[dev]'

# Tests
pytest                              # unit + integration (fast)
pytest -m smoke                     # end-to-end smoke
pytest --slow                       # everything, including real-claude smoke

License

MIT