Welcome to intend.

intend is a Go CLI for Intent-Driven Development. It keeps the contract for a change in plain files, not in prompts, screenshots, or memory.

You write:

• intent in specs/
• behavior in features/
• trace metadata in .intend/trace/
• locked contract state in .intend/locks/

The result is simple. A change has a name, a contract, and a recorded baseline. No hidden state. No guessing what was approved.

What is intend for?#

• Go projects that want a contract-first workflow
• teams using AI to draft code, but not to decide what “correct” means
• repositories that prefer plain files and normal command-line tools

If you can run go test, you can use intend.

What is in this site?#

• Intent-Driven Development explains the idea and the mental model.
• Getting started walks through the first bundle from init to verify.
• Workflow shows the day-to-day lifecycle, including contrib mode.
• Reference lists commands, files, exit codes, and tool requirements.

Quick example#

go build ./cmd/intend
./intend init
./intend new hello-http
./intend lock hello-http
./intend trace hello-http

Those five commands create a bundle, lock its contract, and confirm that the locked files still match.

Next step#

If the idea is new, start with Intent-Driven Development.

If you want to type commands right away, jump to Getting started.