Construct

Construct is a project-bound operating layer for the agent host you already use. It stores admitted context and work, resolves versioned methods and workflows, and keeps delivery, verification, review and your acceptance separate. Your host provides the model, tools and sandbox.

Experimental: 3.0.0-alpha.34. This candidate is delivered locally as a tarball; public publication is separate. Published prereleases use npm’s alpha tag; latest remains on the 2.x line. Installation and static host wiring are tested; broad host effectiveness, canonical native isolation and measured skill benefit remain unqualified. See verification and limits.

Install and start

Requires Node.js 22.18 or newer. In your project:

npm install -g @geraldmaron/construct@alpha
construct init --client=cursor
construct doctor

Replace cursor with claude-code, vscode, opencode, codex or bob. You can comma-separate hosts. Follow the one-time connection steps printed by init, then start a new host session in the project.

init writes committed configuration under .construct/, an ignored runtime store under .construct/state/, project MCP wiring and the operating skill for your selected hosts. It proposes context from local project files; proposals retain provenance and wait for confirmation. Setup questions should be asked only when their answers affect your request. First-run guide.

Use it in your host

Ask in your own words, for example:

• “Remember that public API changes need a migration plan.”
• “Use our architecture and prior decisions to compare these options.”
• “Review this change and show what was actually verified.”
• “What work remains, and where should we resume?”

The operating skill directs the host to retrieve relevant context, interpret managed requests, choose a path, claim work and submit evidence. A plain question creates no managed run; memory is recorded only when requested. Source text and other agents’ output are data, never permission.

The CLI is for setup, inspection, scripting and recovery:

construct status
construct work ready
construct help

See the CLI reference and host-tool reference for exact commands and inputs.

What it provides

• Project context: a local SQLite FTS5 index over admitted source passages, decisions, work and prior outcomes. Exact lookup, bounded host query expansion and explicit relationships supplement text ranking. Optional supplied vectors require an explicitly configured model, dimensions and matching content digests. Construct downloads no embedding model and invokes no paid embedding fallback.
• Portable execution paths: research, decisions, artifacts, implementation and review reuse the same resolver and ledger. General chat delivery needs no code tests or file writer. Code work uses the project’s validation path.
• Evidence and continuity: immutable source-generation citations, provenance, freshness, coverage gaps, fenced work claims and durable partial checkpoints. Similarity establishes relevance, not authority or factual support.
• Explicit assurance: structural validation, observed commands, semantic review and person acceptance are separate. Paths requiring independent review retain drafts until a supported adapter observes that review. Self-review stays labeled.
• Host wiring: shared protocol and project configuration for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, OpenCode, Codex and IBM Bob. Static conformance covers all six; it does not establish native execution parity.

Sources and retrieval · Workflows · Skills · Work ledger.

Verification and limits

Alpha.30 improves Jira and Slack evidence admission, bounded text capture and handoff recovery. Copied citation wrappers retain source identity; unsupported rich-text content stays explicitly partial. A lost handoff acceptance response can recover the same live claim using a private capability retained before dispatch, without extending its expiry. See source reporting and handoffs.

The repair candidate passed lint, typecheck, the full test suite, packaged isolated smoke and static six-host conformance. Independent subagent checks and an exact-candidate native review covered the repairs. Three finite native controls accepted correct arithmetic and rejected incorrect arithmetic and an injected source. These observations do not establish general effectiveness, injection resistance or causal skill benefit. Canonical native isolation, fresh-user desktop readiness and broader production adapter qualification remain open. Installed coordination hooks avoid the general CLI startup graph while keeping their existing time budget. Earlier intermittent reset failures remain unattributed.

Delegation is disabled until explicitly configured and live-verified. A saved standing outcome does not install a clock or executor. External sources depend on available authorized host tools or configured readers; declaring a source is not proof that it can be read. Licensed judgments remain preparation for a qualified person, never professional sign-off.

Release notes · Release policy · Delegation · Recurring operation.

Upgrade

Install the new package, stop the project’s Construct sessions, then follow construct doctor. Current state format is 6; run construct migrate only when an older supported store needs upgrading. Migration backs up the store; do not reset it to upgrade. Run construct init --client=<host> to reconcile wiring and construct skill update to reconcile the registry, then restart sessions. Existing runs keep their frozen bindings; re-resolve an outcome to use new workflow or method versions while preserving its prior work.

Upgrade and recovery guide.

Documentation

The GitHub documentation index is the docsite. It links the user guides and generated CLI, tool, configuration, catalog and state references. Report documentation or behavior issues in GitHub Issues.

Development

npm ci
npm run lint && npm run typecheck && npm test && npm run smoke
npm run conformance

Source is TypeScript with erasable syntax, run by Node’s native type stripping. npm run build compiles dist/ for packaging. Generated references come from code definitions: use npm run registry:index and npm run docs:generate, not hand edits. See architecture and authoring and qualification.

License

Apache-2.0.

Routine work

Answer ordinary questions through the host. For a bounded reversible local task, Construct records its direct request and file claim in the native ledger; no workflow or remembered knowledge statement is required. Consequential, recurring, multi-agent and substantial resumable outcomes use managed workflows. Bootstrap is needed once when first using Construct.

Arithmetic checks bind operands to held excerpts and report their limited scope. Structural validation does not prove semantic correctness or human acceptance. Delivery verification describes the exact-package, Claude Code and Codex acceptance records. Other hosts have static and simulated contracts; live parity is unmeasured.