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dotclaude is an opinionated Claude Code plugin marketplace for software engineering. It keeps only the parts that Claude Code does not cover, and it optimizes for the most quality per unit of usage quota, not for speed. Since 0.27 the core plugin uses only official extension points: settings, permission rules, the sandbox, one output style, agents, skills, and one hooks module. If Claude does something because of dotclaude and you ask "why did you do that?", the answer is in these pages.

What it does

• Sets permission rules and the sandbox, so that Claude Code asks before destructive, public, and secret-reading actions.
• Asks before a recursive rm outside the project, and before the first contact with a repository of another owner that has an AI policy file.
• Turns off compaction and sets a 300K context window, so that a session stops at the limit and you start fresh with /clear.
• Forces one output style over the simple system prompt.
• Gives Claude six agents with a model, an effort, and a turn limit each.
• Writes a handoff note on request (/dotclaude:handoff), and works with OpenSpec for the task list.
• Shows model, effort, context, the OpenSpec change, and the 5-hour limit in a status line.
• Adds optional plugins for a browser (dotclaude-browser), a second opinion (dotclaude-jev), and game modding (dotclaude-modder).

The position

Position	What it means
Quality per quota over speed	Usage limits stop work. dotclaude spends quota where it buys quality, and it locks fast mode off.
Quality over quantity	One checked change is worth more than several unchecked changes. Claude reproduces a bug before it fixes it, and it reports what it did not check.
Official points over runtime code	When Claude Code has a setting, a rule, or a hook for a need, dotclaude uses it and writes no runtime code.
Evidence over habit	Each bound comes from a measurement, an official source, or a reverse-read of the Claude Code binary.
The user decides	Rules ask before hard-to-reverse or public actions, and they never approve anything. The setup skill shows every change and makes a backup first.

Next steps

Page	Read it to
Install	Install the marketplace and the plugins.
Quickstart	See what happens in a first session.
Guards	Learn what asks, what denies, and what the sandbox does.
Handoffs	Carry work across /clear.
OpenSpec	Keep the task list in OpenSpec.
Browser	Drive a browser.
Second opinion	Get a second opinion from Jev.
Modder	Mod a PC game that you own.
Contributions	Draft work for projects that you do not own.
Parts	Find each part, its file, and its bound.
Development and Sandbox	Change dotclaude and test a checkout.
Attributions	See the projects whose ideas dotclaude reimplements.

Concepts and evidence

Page	What it holds
Design	The 0.27 rebuild, design principles, and rejected alternatives.
Usage evidence	Where one Max 20x week of usage went, and what that means on Pro.
Plans and models	Prices, model fit, and effort.
Prompt surface	What a request contains, the simple prompt, and the forced style.
Eval history	The behavior eval suites of the 0.4 to 0.26 releases.
Claude mods	The plugin hooks modules of Claude Code, and the gaps.
Open items	Work still to measure or decide.
Release history	What changed in each older release, and why.

The CHANGELOG lists the current release.

Source labels

The evidence pages give the proof for each choice, and each fact there has one of these labels. A choice with no label is the maintainer's decision, and the page says so.

Label	Source
official	Anthropic documentation or support pages
binary	read from the installed Claude Code bundle, never patched
capture	a request body that Claude Code sent to a local listener
measured	a run or a transcript scan on the maintainer's machine
reported	user reports, weighed by score and agreement
inference	a conclusion from the facts above

The 0.27 facts date from Claude Code 2.1.292. The older evidence dates from 2026-09-26 to 2026-10-04 and Claude Code 2.1.283 to 2.1.289. Dollar figures are API-equivalent list prices. How a subscription weights cache reads against output is not published.