Brief2Ship

One brief. Better build. Proof included.

Brief2Ship is a lean build standard for AI-assisted product work. It turns a strong one-shot brief into a shipped, verified artifact without making the user babysit a bloated process.

What it is

Brief2Ship is a workflow standard, not a giant framework.

It helps an operator or agent do five things consistently:

1. Get a strong one-shot prompt
2. Choose a base before building greenfield
3. Reject brittle unreadable agent code
4. Format reports and documents for decision-ready reading
5. Turn the brief into a verified artifact

User experience

The external UX stays simple:

1. One-shot prompt
2. Up to 5 follow-up questions only if needed
3. Execute
4. Return proof

The user should not have to learn the internals.

Internal workflow

The public name is Brief2Ship. The operating model underneath stays intentionally simple: one strong brief, three internal tiers, and a final proof gate.

Tier 1 — Repo-first

Search for the best existing repo, starter, tool, or template before building.

Default companion: repo-first-starter

Tier 2 — Maintainability gate

Use droogans/unmaintainable-code in reverse.

Reject:

• vague naming
• hidden logic
• duplicated business logic
• unjustified abstraction
• weak observability
• dependency bloat
• chat-context-only code

Tier 3 — Design / UI / motion finish

Do not ship generic AI-slop UI.

Default references:

• shadcn-ui/ui
• tailwindlabs/headlessui
• motiondivision/motion
• darkroomengineering/lenis when justified
• magicuidesign/magicui selectively only

Why this exists

Most starter kits solve only one part of the build problem:

• scaffolding
• design system
• SaaS boilerplate
• component library

Brief2Ship is different.

It is a build operating standard for AI-assisted delivery:

• choose better starting points
• preserve judgment and maintainability
• add tasteful finish without adding ceremony

Why the name

The old names described the internal mechanism or the final proof. Brief2Ship sells the full transformation:

• Brief — the user gives one clear starting prompt, not a pile of process docs
• 2 — direct path from intent to execution, with at most five targeted follow-ups
• Ship — the result is a usable artifact with receipts, not a planning loop
• Memorable + searchable — short enough for prompts, docs, repo names, and package names

Use this line when explaining it publicly:

Brief2Ship is the lightweight operating standard for AI-assisted builds: start from one strong brief, choose the best base, keep the code maintainable, polish the UX, and prove it works.

What this repo includes

• skills/brief2ship/SKILL.md — Hermes/OpenClaw skill package
• docs/how-it-works.md — full breakdown of the workflow
• docs/lanes.md — the 4 default lanes
• docs/examples.md — example prompts and execution patterns
• templates/ — kickoff, report, and receipt templates
• scripts/install-skill.sh — install the skill into a local Hermes profile

The 4 default lanes

To avoid ambiguity without overcomplicating the standard, this repo ships with four default lanes:

1. App
2. Dashboard / Internal tool
3. Landing page
4. Report / Document

See docs/lanes.md and docs/report-document-lane.md.

Lightweight receipts

Every build should end with a small artifact pack:

• chosen base and why
• changed files
• commands/tests run
• verification/proof
• known compromises

Use templates/build-receipt-template.md.

Non-goals

This project intentionally does not try to be:

• a full app framework
• a replacement for product judgment
• a giant scoring engine
• a mandatory design system
• a rigid PM workflow

The goal is to improve build quality without harming judgment or accuracy.

Comparison to adjacent products

Product type	What it does well	What this adds
Starter kits	Scaffold fast	Forces repo-first choice instead of default greenfield
SaaS boilerplates	Ship common product features	Adds maintainability gate + anti-slop finish rules
Component libraries	Better UI primitives	Adds upstream selection + delivery discipline
Agent skills/runbooks	Internal process	Adds a public-facing packaging layer and examples

Quick start

As documentation

Read:

1. docs/how-it-works.md
2. docs/lanes.md
3. docs/examples.md

As a Hermes skill

bash scripts/install-skill.sh

Then load:

brief2ship

Backward-compatible skill names during migration: shipproof, three-tier-build-toolkit.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Contributors

Initial framework direction and product requirements: Mike
Packaging, workflow codification, and repo drafting: Hermes Agent (generalist1)

Future contributors should keep the project lean. If a feature makes the workflow harder to apply consistently, it probably does not belong here.

License

MIT for the material in this repo. Upstream referenced projects keep their own licenses.