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CTO Chief

Your Virtual CTO — 60 AI agents. 265 expert skills. 15 quality gates.

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/robotijn/ctoc

/plugin install ctoc

Enable auto-update: /plugin → Marketplaces tab → robotijn → Enable auto-update

GitHub: robotijn/ctoc

Command Description
/ctoc Interactive dashboard (run in terminal) or status report (via Claude)
/ctoc:update Update to latest version (instant, no restart)

Updating CTOC

/ctoc:update

This is a temporary workaround due to Claude Code restrictions where /plugin update doesn't reliably update plugins (#19197).

How it works:

  • Uses git to pull latest changes directly from GitHub
  • No restart required — changes are live immediately
  • Self-healing: auto-clones if cache is missing or corrupted

Once the Claude Code bug is fixed, /plugin update ctoc will be the recommended method.

What is CTO Chief?

CTO Chief transforms Claude Code into a disciplined engineering system. Instead of jumping straight to code, it follows a 15-step Iron Loop methodology:

  • Plan before code
  • Test before ship
  • Secure before deploy
  • Document before commit

You are the CTO Chief — the human commander. The plugin provides 60 specialist agents and 265 expert skills that execute your vision. Skills are loaded on-demand and token-optimized — you only pay for what you use.

YOU (CTO Chief)
       |
       v
  AI Coordinator --> 60 Specialist Agents
       |
       +-- Testing (9)       Quality (8)      Security (5)     Infrastructure (4)
       +-- Validators (11)   Frontend (3)     Mobile (3)       Data/ML (3)
       +-- Compliance (3)    Versioning (3)   AI Quality (2)   Documentation (2)
       +-- DevEx (2)         Cost (1)         Coordinator (1)

Validators: accessibility, API contracts, config, database, error handling, health checks, memory safety, observability, performance, resilience, i18n

Agent Categories: Testing (9) · Quality (8) · Security (5) · Infrastructure (4) · Specialized (11) · Frontend (3) · Mobile (3) · AI Quality (2) · Data/ML (3) · Documentation (2) · Compliance (3) · Cost (1) · DevEx (2) · Versioning (3)

Installation

From Claude Code:

Step 1: Add the marketplace

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/robotijn/ctoc

Step 2: Install the plugin

/plugin install ctoc

Step 3: Enable auto-update (important!)

  1. Run /plugin
  2. Go to Marketplaces tab (use Tab key)
  3. Select robotijn
  4. Select Enable auto-update

This ensures you always have the latest version on startup.

Verify: /plugin → Installed tab → ctoc should be listed.

Quick Start

1. Start Claude Code with permissions bypass

claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

This flag allows CTOC agents to run without constant permission prompts. It's safe when:

  • You're on a feature branch (not main)
  • You have git to revert unwanted changes
  • You're in a sandboxed dev environment

2. Resume a previous session (optional)

claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --continue

The --continue flag resumes your last conversation, preserving context.

3. Check status

/ctoc

The Iron Loop

15 steps across 4 phases — Full methodology →

Phase Steps Description
Functional Planning 1-3 ASSESS → ALIGN → CAPTURE · Gate 1: User approves what to build
Technical Planning 4-6 PLAN → DESIGN → SPEC · Gate 2: User approves how to build
Implementation 7-10 TEST → QUALITY → IMPLEMENT → REVIEW
Delivery 11-15 OPTIMIZE → SECURE → DOCUMENT → VERIFY → COMMIT · Gate 3: User approves commit

Key features: Hook Enforcement · Crash Recovery · Integrator + Critic Loop · 14 Quality Dimensions

Agents

60 specialist agents across 15 categories — Browse all →

Category # Agents
Coordinator 1 cto-chief
Testing 9 unit, integration, e2e, mutation, smoke + writers
Quality 8 architecture, code-review, complexity, type-check, code-smell, dead-code, duplicate, consistency
Security 5 scanner, secrets, dependencies, input-validation, concurrency
Specialized 11 performance, memory, accessibility, database, api-contract, config, error, health, observability, resilience, i18n
Frontend 3 bundle, component, visual-regression
Mobile 3 ios, android, react-native
Infrastructure 4 terraform, kubernetes, docker, ci-pipeline
Documentation 2 docs, changelog
Compliance 3 gdpr, audit, license
Data/ML 3 data-quality, ml-model, feature-store
Cost 1 cloud-cost
AI Quality 2 hallucination, ai-code-review
DevEx 2 onboarding, deprecation
Versioning 3 backwards-compat, feature-flags, tech-debt

Agents spawn conditionally based on your project and current Iron Loop step.

Skills

265 embedded skills for instant expert knowledge — Browse all →

Type # Examples
Languages 50 Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Java, C#, Swift, Kotlin
Web 85 React, Next.js, Vue, Django, FastAPI, Rails, Spring Boot
AI/ML 44 PyTorch, LangChain, Hugging Face, MLflow
Data 52 PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, Spark
DevOps 15 Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm
Mobile 15 React Native, Flutter, SwiftUI

Stack detected automatically from your project files. Also includes: CTO Persona · Iron Loop · Quality Standards · Enforcement

Interactive Interface

The /ctoc command opens a full terminal UI with tabs:

Tab Purpose
Overview Plan counts, agent status
Functional Manage functional plan drafts
Implementation Manage implementation plan drafts
Review Review completed implementations
Todo FIFO queue for agent work
Progress In-progress and finished items
Tools Doctor, Update, Settings

Navigation:

  • ←/→ Switch tabs
  • ↑/↓ Navigate lists
  • 1-9 Jump to item
  • Enter Select
  • b Back
  • q Quit

Or just talk naturally — CTO Chief understands intent.

Enforcement

CTO Chief blocks premature actions:

Edit/Write blocked until planning complete (Steps 1-6)

❌ BLOCKED: Edit operation blocked
   Current step: 3 (CAPTURE)
   Edit/Write allowed from: Step 7 (TEST)

Commit blocked until verification complete (Steps 1-13)

❌ BLOCKED: Commit blocked
   Current step: 10 (REVIEW)
   Commit allowed from: Step 14 (VERIFY)

Escape hatch — say "skip planning" or "quick fix" to bypass.

Philosophy

CTO Chief embodies a senior engineering leader who:

Never compromises on:

  • Tests for critical paths
  • No secrets in code
  • Error handling in production paths
  • Documented public APIs

Prioritizes:

  • Security > everything
  • Correctness > performance
  • Maintainability > cleverness

Asks first:

  • What business problem does this solve?
  • How will we know it works?
  • What happens if it fails?

Requirements

  • Claude Code >= 1.0.0
  • Node.js >= 18.0.0

Updating

Use /ctoc:update instead of /plugin update ctoc:

/ctoc:update

Then restart to load the new version:

exit
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --continue

Why /ctoc:update?

The built-in /plugin update command has two issues:

  1. Stale cache bug — #19197 causes /plugin update to not refresh cached files properly

  2. Local scope detection — When running from a directory that contains the plugin source (like ctoc-build), Claude Code auto-sets scope: local which pins the plugin to a specific project instead of being globally available

/ctoc:update fixes both:

  • Fetches latest from GitHub
  • Installs to cache with correct version
  • Forces scope: global in the plugin registry
  • Cleans up old versions

Command-line flags

Flag Purpose
--dangerously-skip-permissions Bypass permission prompts for tool calls
--continue Resume previous conversation with full context

Recommended workflow:

# Start new session
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

# Or resume previous session
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --continue

Troubleshooting

Plugin not found — reinstall:

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/robotijn/ctoc
/plugin install ctoc

Plugin stale after update — force refresh:

/ctoc:update

Then restart Claude Code.

State invalid — reset:

rm ~/.ctoc/state/*.json

Health check:

/ctoc doctor

Version

6.1.8 — Fix plugin installation

  • Fixed hooks.json location for plugin installation
  • Renamed marketplace to robotijn (plugin is now ctoc@robotijn)
  • Update check on session start (checks GitHub, cached 24h)
  • Single source of truth: ctoc-plugin/

Releasing

Every commit bumps the patch version automatically (e.g., 5.2.29 → 5.2.30).

For larger changes, ask for:

  • "minor release" → 5.2.29 → 5.3.0 (new features, backward compatible)
  • "major release" → 5.2.29 → 6.0.0 (breaking changes)

The release script syncs the version across all files automatically.

For Developers

Version management:

const { release, getVersion, syncAll, checkForUpdates } = require('./ctoc-plugin/lib/version');

getVersion()       // → '5.0.5'
release()          // → bumps patch: 5.0.5 → 5.0.6, syncs all files
release('minor')   // → bumps minor: 5.0.5 → 5.1.0, syncs all files
release('major')   // → bumps major: 5.0.5 → 6.0.0, syncs all files
syncAll()          // → syncs current version to all files without bumping

// Async update check
const update = await checkForUpdates();
if (update.updateAvailable) {
  console.log(`${update.currentVersion} → ${update.latestVersion}`);
}

Files synced automatically by release():

  • VERSION (source of truth)
  • .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
  • ctoc-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
  • README.md (version line)

License

MIT — See LICENSE

Links

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit."

About

The CTO Chief repo with the official Iron Loop for programming

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