A structured 5-stage development workflow for AI coding agents: Research → Plan → Scaffold → Build → Validate.
Works with any agent that supports the Agent Skills standard — including Claude Code, OpenAI Codex CLI, Cursor, and 40+ other platforms.
Motif ensures you research before coding, plan with tradeoff analysis, track tasks explicitly, and validate against the original goal.
npx skills add zackbart/motifThis installs skills to whichever agent platforms you have installed.
claude plugin add zackbart/motifIncludes all skills plus dedicated subagents (researcher, critic, docs-scanner, docs-writer) and session hooks.
git clone https://github.com/zackbart/motif.git ~/.agents/skills/motifInvoke skills using your agent's skill invocation method:
/motif:dev <task description> # Claude Code
/motif:optimize-prompt <prompt goal> # Claude Code
/motif:second-opinion # Claude Code
/motif:update-docs [focus area] # Claude Code
$dev <task description> # Codex CLI
Or use werk for persistent task tracking:
/motif:dev werk <task description> # Claude Code
$dev werk <task description> # Codex CLI
Each stage requires your approval before advancing to the next.
Performs deep, read-only codebase exploration. Depth scales automatically based on task complexity (light / medium / heavy). On Claude Code, this can be delegated to a dedicated research subagent for efficiency.
Develops an implementation approach based on the research findings. Medium and heavy tasks include tradeoff analysis and risk assessment.
Creates a structured task list from the plan using the platform's available task tracking tools, or the werk CLI.
Executes the plan by working through tasks in order. Stops and reports if blockers are encountered.
Verifies the implementation against the original request: goal check, test verification, diff review, and loose-end identification.
When installed as a Claude Code plugin, motif includes additional features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Research subagent | Dedicated agent on Sonnet for codebase exploration |
| Critic subagent | Adversarial reviewer for pressure-testing plans |
| Docs scanner/writer subagents | Parallel doc auditing and updating |
| Session hooks | Reminds you about the workflow on session start |
| Feature | Claude Code | Codex CLI | Other Agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-stage workflow | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research subagent | Dedicated agent | Inline | Inline |
| Task tracking | Native task tools | update_plan / werk | Platform-dependent / werk |
| Subagents | researcher, critic, docs-scanner, docs-writer | Inline | Inline |
| Distribution | Plugin marketplace | Git clone | npx skills |
skills/dev/ # Core 5-stage workflow (universal skill)
references/ # Prompt engineering reference guides
skills/optimize-prompt/ # Prompt engineering assistant (universal skill)
skills/second-opinion/ # Adversarial plan critique (universal skill)
skills/update-docs/ # Documentation auditor and updater (universal skill)
agents/ # Subagents: researcher, critic, docs-scanner, docs-writer
hooks/ # Session lifecycle hooks (Claude Code)
AGENTS.md # Session priming (Codex CLI)
.claude-plugin/ # Plugin manifest (Claude Code)
MIT