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XML protocol framework + false-positive catalog for Claude Code.

Stop Claude from "helpfully" refactoring your intentional code.

---

⚡ 30-second install

npx stetkeep install

This is the one-command minimal install: protocols, subagents, slash commands, path-scoped rules. Next session of claude, type /brain-scan and you're working.

For full mechanical enforcement (hooks + permissions deny-lists), the Install section below has a two-step recommended flow: one extra cp command.

Full walkthrough: BOOTSTRAP_GUIDE.md.

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🎯 What stetkeep actually is

Two things other Claude Code projects don't ship:

1. XML-structured protocol framework

Prose prompts ("be careful when refactoring, prefer readability over cleverness...") don't survive 20K-token contexts. XML-tagged directives do. Anthropic's own prompting guide recommends XML tags explicitly as a way for Claude to parse prompts more accurately. We built three protocols around it:

• BRAIN.md — <routing> / <mode> / <inhibit> — decides where a command goes
• CRAFT.md — <anti_patterns> / <safety_net> / <false_positives> — structural refactor discipline
• PERF.md — <pre_check> / <perf_budget> / <measurement_gate> — measurement-first performance work

~1–2K tokens each (BRAIN ~1K · CRAFT ~1.5K · PERF ~1.8K). Claude's attention lands on XML-delimited sections more reliably than on Markdown prose headers.

2. False-positive catalog

The 16-entry registry of "patterns Claude will mistakenly flag as problems." Examples:

What Claude sees	What Claude will say	What it actually is
1000-line config / data file	"God File (A1). Split it."	A data table. Splitting loses context.
Deliberate inline for loop	"Duplication (A3). Extract."	Profiled hot path. 10× faster than reduce.
Plain <img> element	"Use next/image."	Below-fold. Not the LCP element.
Array.map().map().map()	"Collapse into reduce."	V8 optimizes this; readability wins.

When Claude matches one of these, the Safety Net flags it 🔴 Low confidence and asks before editing. Catalog is under <false_positives> in CRAFT.md and PERF.md.

No competitor ships this.

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🛡 Supporting layer — hook-enforced Safety Net

On top of the XML framework, stetkeep ships a five-layer defense:

• Layer A — permissions.deny hard-blocks edits to legacy/, generated/, vendor/ (deterministic)
• Layer B — PreToolUse hook runs out-of-process; returns deny/ask/allow JSON (deterministic)
• Layer C — Subagent tool scoping — craft-specialist / perf-specialist can't create new files; edits to existing files require explicit user approval (structural)
• Layer D — Path-scoped rules auto-load CRAFT/PERF on src/** file access (heuristic)
• Layer E — XML protocols + false-positive catalog (heuristic)

Layers A / B / C fire regardless of model attention. Layers D / E bias behavior. Honest breakdown in ARCHITECTURE.md §1.

This part is not novel — TDD-Guard, claude-guardrails, and others already ship hook-based enforcement. stetkeep's wedge is the XML framework + FP catalog above; hooks are just the vehicle.

---

🧠 Architecture at a glance

                 ┌──────────────────────────┐
  user command ─▶│     Claude Code          │
                 │  (reads CLAUDE.md auto)  │
                 └───────────┬──────────────┘
                             │
               ┌─────────────┴─────────────┐
               ▼                           ▼
   ┌────────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────────┐
   │ Subagents          │    │ Path-scoped rules    │
   │ agents/            │    │ .claude/rules/       │
   │ — tool-scoped      │    │ — auto-load on read  │
   └──────────┬─────────┘    └──────────┬───────────┘
              │                          │
              └──────────────┬───────────┘
                             ▼
                  ┌──────────────────────┐
                  │  Edit / Write tool   │
                  └──────────┬───────────┘
                             │
                 ┌───────────▼────────────┐
                 │ PreToolUse HOOK        │  ◀── mechanical, out-of-process
                 │ hooks/safety-net.sh    │     can deny / ask / allow
                 │ path / ignore / marker │     path, ignore, marker-driven
                 └───────────┬────────────┘
                             │
                        allow│deny/ask
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────┐
                    │   file edit  │
                    └──────────────┘

---

📦 Install

Quickstart (1 step, minimal)

cd /path/to/your-project
npx stetkeep install

Gets you the XML protocols, subagents, slash commands, and path-scoped rules (Layers C/D/E). Enforcement is prompt-level only: the model biases toward the Safety Net but cannot be mechanically blocked.

Recommended (2 steps, full mechanical enforcement)

After npx stetkeep install:

cp .claude/settings.example.json .claude/settings.json

If you already have .claude/settings.json (from other tooling or a previous install): cp will overwrite it. Run ls .claude/settings.json first; if it exists, merge the permissions and hooks.PreToolUse blocks from settings.example.json manually instead of overwriting.

This wires up the remaining two layers:

• Layer A (permissions deny-list): hard-blocks edits to legacy/, generated/, vendor/
• Layer B (PreToolUse hook): out-of-process Safety Net enforcement on every Edit / Write / Bash

Without this step, legacy/ protection is a prompt suggestion rather than a deterministic block. You keep the same protection surface the project was designed around by completing it.

Then launch

claude

Inside Claude Code:

/brain-scan

npx stetkeep install modes

• --mode coexist (default): preserve everything, append 3-line bootstrap to CLAUDE.md
• --mode merge: same + add a Protocols reference section
• --mode fresh: empty-project install (requires --force if anything exists)
• --dry-run: preview without writing

Alternative: self-hosted plugin marketplace

stetkeep distributes a plugin catalog directly from GitHub — no Anthropic review required, works today:

# In Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add chanjoongx/stetkeep
/plugin install stetkeep

Auto-loads subagents, commands, and the hook with no file copying into your project. Tradeoff: path-scoped rules (Layer D) and root-level protocol MDs cannot be packaged by the plugin spec, so they stay user-level. For the full experience use npx stetkeep install.

Anthropic official marketplace (under review)

stetkeep has been submitted to Anthropic's official Claude Code plugin marketplace and is currently under review. Once approved, installation simplifies to a single command — no marketplace add step needed:

# In Claude Code — available once approved
/plugin install stetkeep

Watch chanjoongx/stetkeep releases for updates.

Alternative: clone + run installer directly (for hacking on stetkeep)

git clone https://github.com/chanjoongx/stetkeep.git
cd /path/to/your-project
node /path/to/stetkeep/lib/install.js

Same flags as npx stetkeep install (--mode, --force, --dry-run). Use this only if you are modifying stetkeep itself.

---

🚀 Usage

After install, three slash commands are available inside Claude Code. Type / to see them:

Command	What it does
/brain-scan [path]	Map your MD ecosystem — classifies all .md files, checks Safety Net wiring, proposes next steps
/craft-audit [path]	Read-only structural scan — A1–A20 anti-pattern atlas + false-positive cross-check, returns 🟢/🟡/🔴 confidence-graded findings
/perf-audit [scope]	Measurement-first baseline — guides Lighthouse + bundle analysis, returns Top 5 bottlenecks by Impact × User-pain

Recommended first session:

/brain-scan            # map what's in your project, check Safety Net status
/craft-audit src/      # find structural issues — read-only, no edits yet
/perf-audit            # baseline measurements — read-only, no edits yet

Both audit commands end with "Proceed? (yes / reorder / cancel)" — nothing is edited without an explicit go-ahead.

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⚙️ Requirements

• Claude Code 2026+ (hooks, subagents, path-scoped rules, slash commands all require this)
• Node 20+ (bundled with Claude Code — you have it)
• bash on macOS/Linux; Git Bash (recommended) or PowerShell on Windows
• jq (optional — hook falls back to grep if absent)

Windows note: macOS/Linux/Git Bash is the primary test surface. The safety-net.ps1 PowerShell hook ships but has less field data; if hooks misbehave on native PowerShell, npx stetkeep install is the shortest recovery path (bypasses ExecutionPolicy + avoids the WSL bash.exe proxy).

---

⚖ vs. the 2026 ecosystem

Honest comparison (based on competitive research documented in CHANGELOG v0.3.0):

	stetkeep	TDD-Guard	claude-guardrails	VoltAgent subagents	everything-claude-code
Scope	XML protocols + FP catalog	TDD-specific blocking	Security permissions	Subagent library	Kitchen-sink toolkit
Stars (Apr 2026)	just launched	2K	12	17.7K	160K
Hook enforcement	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
Tool-scoped subagents	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
XML-structured protocols	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
False-positive catalog	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Plugin marketplace	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
npm package	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅

If you want TDD-specific blocking → TDD-Guard. If you want security policy as code → claude-guardrails. If you want an agent library → VoltAgent. If you want everything at once → everything-claude-code.

If you want a protocol framework with a curated false-positive registry, that's us.

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🎯 Verify it works

Checks 1-3 assume the npx stetkeep install flow, which copies files into your project's .claude/. Plugin-marketplace installs register the artifacts from Claude Code's own plugin directory, so .claude/agents/ and .claude/hooks/ will be empty in your project; in that case skip to check 4.

# 1. Hook runs and returns decisions
echo '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"legacy/x.ts"}}' \
  | bash .claude/hooks/safety-net.sh

# Expected (JSON):
# {"hookSpecificOutput":{"permissionDecision":"ask", ...}}

# 2. Subagents discoverable
ls .claude/agents/
# brain-router.md  craft-specialist.md  perf-specialist.md

# 3. Slash commands (after restarting Claude Code)
# In Claude Code, type `/` — you should see /brain-scan, /craft-audit, /perf-audit

# 4. Quick diagnostic (works in both install modes)
npx stetkeep scan

---

🔧 Troubleshooting

Windows PowerShell execution policy issues

Use npx stetkeep install — it runs through npm and is not affected by PowerShell's ExecutionPolicy.

PowerShell renders em-dashes (—) as ??

Cosmetic only on Korean / CP949 consoles. Run chcp 65001 first, or just ignore — the install is correct.

bash in PowerShell tries to invoke WSL

That's Windows's built-in bash.exe (WSL proxy), not Git Bash. Use npx stetkeep install (no bash dependency) or open Git Bash directly from the Start menu.

Hook doesn't seem to do anything

Verify the hook returns JSON:

echo '{"tool_name":"Edit","tool_input":{"file_path":"legacy/x.ts"}}' | bash .claude/hooks/safety-net.sh

If no output: make sure .claude/settings.json exists (copy from settings.example.json) and the hook is wired under hooks.PreToolUse.

/brain-scan not recognized

Claude Code 2026+ required. Older versions don't scan .claude/commands/. Check with claude --version.

---

📁 Repo layout

stetkeep/
├── agents/                      # plugin subagents (canonical, marketplace-distributed)
├── commands/                    # plugin slash commands (canonical)
├── hooks/
│   ├── hooks.json               # plugin hook manifest
│   ├── safety-net.sh            # PreToolUse (bash)
│   └── safety-net.ps1           # PreToolUse (PowerShell)
├── .claude/                     # dogfooding mirrors + user-level files
│   ├── agents/                  # mirror of ../agents/ (loaded when claude runs inside this repo)
│   ├── commands/                # mirror of ../commands/
│   ├── hooks/                   # mirror of ../hooks/
│   ├── rules/                   # path-scoped rules (npm-distributed; plugin spec cannot package these)
│   └── settings.example.json    # hook wiring template
├── .claude-plugin/
│   ├── plugin.json              # Claude Code plugin manifest
│   └── marketplace.json         # self-hosted marketplace entry
├── bin/stetkeep.js               # npm CLI entry (ESM, Node 20+, stdlib only)
├── lib/
│   ├── install.js               # cross-platform installer
│   ├── scan.js                  # ecosystem diagnostic
│   └── utils.js                 # log helpers
├── BRAIN.md                     # routing protocol
├── CRAFT.md                     # refactor protocol + FP catalog
├── PERF.md                      # performance protocol + FP catalog
├── CLAUDE.template.md           # user-facing CLAUDE.md template (npm-distributed)
├── ARCHITECTURE.md              # honest enforcement breakdown
├── BOOTSTRAP_GUIDE.md           # first-session walkthrough
├── PRIVACY.md                   # privacy policy (zero data collection)
├── benchmark/SPEC.md            # evaluation methodology
├── docs/releases/               # per-version release notes (source)
├── validators/                  # installation verification (.sh + .ps1)
├── package.json
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── LICENSE

---

🧪 Benchmark

We publish a pre-registered evaluation spec instead of hand-wavy numbers:

📄 benchmark/SPEC.md — 50 test cases, 3 conditions (vanilla / stetkeep full / stetkeep Safety-Net-only), human rubric grading (Cohen's κ ≥ 0.75), paired bootstrap statistics.

Results pending. We'll publish data + methodology, not a single percentage.

---

❓ FAQ

Does the Safety Net actually work, or is it prompting theater?

Layers A (permissions) and B (hook) are out-of-process and deterministic — they block edits before the tool fires, regardless of what Claude decided. Layer C (subagent tool scoping) is enforced at spawn — Write (new file creation) is not in the toolset; Edit of existing files requires explicit user approval. Layers D (path-scoped rules) and E (XML protocols + FP catalog) are heuristic — they bias the model but cannot guarantee behavior. Full breakdown in ARCHITECTURE.md §1.

Does this work with Cursor / Codex / OpenCode?

The XML protocols and false-positive catalog are plain Markdown — any AI that reads MD can use them. But the hook system, subagent tool scoping, and path-scoped rules are Claude Code 2026 features. Without them you lose the deterministic layers.

Why BRAIN / CRAFT / PERF?

It's a mnemonic — "BRAIN routes, CRAFT refactors, PERF measures" — not a cognitive claim. MD files are documents read by a language model. See ARCHITECTURE.md §8.

Does it work with existing CLAUDE.md and memory/?

Yes. coexist mode (default) preserves everything — only appends a 3-line bootstrap reference to your CLAUDE.md. The memory/ folder is detected and left untouched.

npm install vs plugin marketplace?

• npm install: gets you everything — the root protocols (BRAIN.md / CRAFT.md / PERF.md), path-scoped rules, settings template, plus the plugin components.
• Self-hosted marketplace (/plugin marketplace add chanjoongx/stetkeep): gets you only the plugin components — subagents, slash commands, hook. Path-scoped rules and root-level protocols can't be packaged as a plugin, so they stay user-level. Works today.
• Official Anthropic marketplace (/plugin install stetkeep): same plugin components as above, single command, no marketplace add step. Currently under review.

For the full stetkeep experience, use npm install. For lightweight subagent access, either plugin option works.

Why the name "stetkeep"?

stet is the traditional editorial mark from Latin "let it stand" — what editors write over proposed deletions to cancel them and preserve the original text. stetkeep applies the same principle to code: tell Claude to leave your intentional code alone.

Originally launched as mdbrain on 2026-04-19, renamed to stetkeep one day later after a brand conflict with mediaire's medical AI. See CHANGELOG for the full story.

Built with AI?

Yes. Designed by CJ Kim in iteration with Claude. The protocol's own Safety Net caught multiple attempts where Claude proposed to "improve" the protocol in self-defeating ways — which is exactly the kind of false-positive editing stetkeep is built to prevent.

---

🗺 Roadmap

• v0.1 — protocol-only draft
• v0.2 — Claude Code 2026 native mechanisms (hooks, subagents, path-scoped rules)
• v0.3 — npm package, plugin manifest, Anthropic marketplace submission (as mdbrain)
• v0.4 — renamed to stetkeep (brand disambiguation), post-launch audit fixes, OIDC trusted publishing + Sigstore provenance
• v0.5 — benchmark results (benchmark/SPEC.md → real numbers) + npx stetkeep init interactive
• v0.6 — per-language variants (CRAFT.python.md, CRAFT.rust.md)
• v1.0 — stable API, typed plugin configs

---

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Highest-value contributions:

• New false-positive entries — patterns Claude commonly mis-flags (with a minimal reproducer)
• New anti-pattern entries (A21+, P21+) — with corresponding FP counterexamples
• Hook improvements — edge cases, better path matching, platform fixes
• Benchmark corpus cases — see benchmark/SPEC.md §3

---

🔐 Security & supply chain

• Published to npm via OIDC Trusted Publisher (no long-lived NPM_TOKEN)
• Every release carries a Sigstore provenance attestation (SLSA v1) bound to its source commit
• Zero runtime dependencies (stdlib-only)
• No network calls at install or hook time — see PRIVACY.md
• GitHub Actions pinned by commit SHA to prevent silent upstream changes

Report vulnerabilities privately via SECURITY.md.

---

📜 License

MIT. Use it, fork it, ship it.

---

Built by CJ Kim · Stress-tested with Claude · Launched 2026-04-19

The model is eager. The Safety Net is skeptical. The XML protocol is structured.