dark-factory

README

Dark Factory

Autonomous coding pipeline — drop prompts in, get commits out.

One factory per project, sequential prompt processing, zero human intervention between spec and commit.

How It Works

You (fast)                                    Factory (slow, unattended)
├── write prompt    ──→  prompts/              (inbox, passive)
├── ready to go     ──→  prompts/in-progress/  ┌─ watcher renames, processor executes
├── write prompt 2  ──→  prompts/              │  YOLO → commit → tag → push
├── move to queue   ──→  prompts/in-progress/  │  YOLO → commit → tag → push
└── go AFK                                     └─ idle, watching prompts/in-progress/
                                                    ↓
You come back                       ←── changes committed and pushed

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+ — to build dark-factory
• Docker — to run claude-yolo containers
• claude-yolo image — docker pull docker.io/bborbe/claude-yolo:v0.3.0
• ~/.claude-yolo/ — Claude Code config for the YOLO agent (see YOLO Container Setup)
• DARK_FACTORY_CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR — set to ~/.claude-yolo (otherwise defaults to ~/.claude)

Installation

go install github.com/bborbe/dark-factory@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/bborbe/dark-factory.git
cd dark-factory
make install

Quick Start

# 1. Initialize project
cd ~/your-project
mkdir -p prompts/in-progress prompts/completed prompts/log
cat > .dark-factory.yaml <<'EOF'
workflow: direct
EOF

# 2. Write a prompt
cat > prompts/my-feature.md << 'EOF'
<summary>
- Adds a /health endpoint returning 200 OK
- No authentication required
- Existing endpoints unchanged
</summary>

<objective>
Add a health check endpoint for load balancer probes.
</objective>

<context>
Read CLAUDE.md for project conventions.
</context>

<requirements>
1. Add GET /health handler returning 200 with body "ok"
2. Register in the router
3. Add test
</requirements>

<constraints>
- Do NOT commit — dark-factory handles git
- Existing tests must still pass
</constraints>

<verification>
Run `make precommit` -- must pass.
</verification>
EOF

# 3. Approve and run
dark-factory prompt approve my-feature
dark-factory daemon

Commands

Command	Purpose
dark-factory daemon	Watch for prompts and process continuously
dark-factory run	Process all queued prompts and exit
dark-factory status	Show combined status
dark-factory prompt list	List prompts with status
dark-factory prompt approve <name>	Queue a prompt for execution
dark-factory prompt retry	Re-queue failed prompts
dark-factory spec list	List specs with status
dark-factory spec approve <name>	Approve a spec (triggers prompt generation)
dark-factory spec complete <name>	Mark a verified spec as completed

Claude Code Plugin

Dark-factory includes a Claude Code plugin for writing and auditing specs and prompts.

claude plugin marketplace add bborbe/dark-factory
claude plugin install dark-factory

Command	Description
/dark-factory:create-spec	Create a spec file interactively
/dark-factory:create-prompt	Create a prompt from spec or description
/dark-factory:audit-spec	Audit spec against quality criteria
/dark-factory:audit-prompt	Audit prompt against Definition of Done

Configuration

Optional .dark-factory.yaml in project root:

workflow: direct                                     # "direct" (default) or "pr"
autoMerge: false                                     # auto-merge PR (requires pr workflow)
autoRelease: false                                   # create release after merge
containerImage: docker.io/bborbe/claude-yolo:v0.3.0  # YOLO Docker image
model: claude-sonnet-4-6                             # Claude model
serverPort: 0                                        # REST API port (0 = disabled)

See docs/init-project.md for the full config reference.

YOLO Container Configuration

Dark-factory executes prompts inside a claude-yolo Docker container. The container needs a Claude Code config directory on the host, mounted into the container.

Quick setup (use bborbe's config):

git clone https://github.com/bborbe/claude-yolo.git ~/.claude-yolo
cd ~/.claude-yolo && claude login
export DARK_FACTORY_CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-yolo

Minimal setup (create your own): You need three files — OAuth credentials (claude login), settings.json, and a CLAUDE.md with agent instructions.

See docs/yolo-container-setup.md for both options in detail.

Directory Structure

your-project/
├── .dark-factory.yaml        # config
├── prompts/                  # inbox (drop prompts here)
│   ├── in-progress/          # queued/executing
│   ├── completed/            # archived
│   └── log/                  # execution logs
├── specs/                    # spec inbox
│   ├── in-progress/          # approved specs
│   └── completed/            # done specs
└── scenarios/                # end-to-end verification

Documentation

Guide	Purpose
Init Project	Set up a new project for dark-factory
Spec Writing	Write behavioral specs for multi-prompt features
Prompt Writing	Write effective prompts for the YOLO agent
Running	Start, monitor, and troubleshoot the pipeline
Scenario Writing	Write end-to-end verification checklists
YOLO Container Setup	Set up ~/.claude-yolo/ config directory
CLAUDE.md Guide	Write project CLAUDE.md files for dark-factory

Design Principles

• YOLO has NO git access — all git ops happen on the host
• Sequential processing — prompts execute in number order
• Frontmatter = state — no database
• Fresh context per prompt — no context rot
• Stop on failure — never skip failed prompts
• Instance lock — one dark-factory per project

License

BSD-2-Clause