qen 0.1.1

A tiny, extensible tool for organizing multi-repository development work

QEN: A Developer Nest for Multi-Repo Innovation

QEN (“קֵן”, nest in Biblical Hebrew) is a tiny, extensible tool for organizing multi-repository development work.
A “qen” is a lightweight context—a safe, structured “nest”—where complex feature development can incubate across multiple repos.

QEN does not replace your workflow.
It simply gathers the pieces into one coherent workspace.

1. Installation

uv tool install qen

Or run without installing:

uvx qen init

2. Quick Start

Create a new context

qen init

Add participating repositories

qen add-repo org/service-a feature/auth-flow
qen add-repo org/frontend-b feature/user-login

Materialize the working workspace

qen sync

QEN clones the repositories, checks out the branches, and constructs a working “nest” under workspace/.

3. Concept: Context as a Repo

A QEN context is simply a small git repository that contains:

• a minimal manifest.yml
• optional notes, prompts, or agent definitions
• a generated workspace/ directory that gathers the active repos

This makes multi-repo feature work:

• reproducible
• shareable
• archive-able
• easy to resurrect
• safe to experiment with

4. Minimal Example manifest.yml

feature: F-1234-improved-auth-flow
repos:
  - name: org/service-a
    branch: feature/auth-flow
  - name: org/frontend-b
    branch: feature/user-login
status: active

5. Philosophy

QEN is intentionally small.
Its job is not to tell you how to develop—it simply creates a structured nest where complex, multi-repo work can grow.

Design principles:

• context over configuration
• minimal manifests
• always latest (with optional checkpoints)
• zero global state
• human-readable, human-manageable repos

6. License

MIT License.