Generic Setup
Copy-paste a folder. Point any coding agent at it. Progressive disclosure loads only what's needed — and nothing else.
Three failures this kills.
Every agent project hits the same three walls. Generic Setup exists to break them — not with theory, with three mechanisms wired into the kit.
Agents invent APIs
The model hallucinates a function signature, ships code that calls it, the build fails, the human debugs for 20 minutes. Repeat.
Orphaned files
Agent writes a new module, forgets to wire it into the barrel/index. File exists, nothing imports it. Dead weight accumulates.
Context bloat
Every invocation loads 500+ lines of context the agent doesn't need. Tokens burn, attention drifts, replies bloat.
Four tiers, one rule.
Tier 0 loads on every invocation. Everything above it loads only when the task actually needs it. Cold/Frozen tiers require explicit invocation — never auto.
The token math.
Before Generic Setup, the same agent invocation dragged 558 lines of hot context. After: 28. The reduction isn't cosmetic — it's a 95% cut on the path that runs on every single call.
| Layer | Before | After | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOT (every invocation) | 558 lines | 28 lines | 95% |
| CLAUDE.md | 260 lines | 68 lines | 74% |
| Per-task context | ~9,000 tokens | ~2,500 tokens | 72% |
| Reply size | unbounded | ≤ 20 lines | 80% |
Three modes. One default.
The agent picks a mode based on the task. Swarm is never auto-selected — it costs 5.6× more than the default and only pays off on parallelizable work.
Instructions, extensions, hooks.
Three layers stack — each more deterministic than the last. Instructions drift. Extensions drift less. Hooks can't drift.
Index before file. Always.
Five steps, in order. The index update happens first — so even if the agent crashes mid-task, the barrel knows the file should exist. No orphans.
10-Point Checklist
719 lines. Real, not docs.
A working shell runtime that spawns parallel agents, tracks them, integrates their work, and recovers from interruption. Not a sketch — production code.
High council review.
Five-axis scorecard from the council review. After fixes: 8.4 average. Before fixes: 3.1. The delta is the whole story.
Honest, both sides.
Not a sales pitch. The kit works — and it has real limits. Both columns are the truth.
Pros 7
- 96% context reduction on hot path
- Real swarm runtime (not just documentation)
- Wire-first prevents orphaned files
- Library cards prevent invented APIs
- Swarm is explicit-only (token efficient)
- Works with Claude Code, Grok CLI, Codex
- Reply format enforced (no essays)
Cons 6
- 120 files is still a lot (council recommends ~25 core)
- Sandbox escape was real (fixed with CLI flags, not containers)
- Extensions depend on LLM compliance (not fully deterministic)
- Research swarm is a separate system bolted on
- No cross-session state persistence (without Tasktron)
- Library cards only cover Python, TS, Rust, Go (no Java/C# yet)
By the numbers.
The full inventory — what's actually in the kit, counted.