explaingit

chitransh-cj/kimchi

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

42ShellAudience · vibe coderComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A Claude Code and Codex plugin that grills a raw idea through expert personas and turns it into build ready specification documents.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((kimchi))
    What it does
      Grills ideas via personas
      Locks tech decisions
      Compiles build docs
    Tech stack
      Claude Code plugin
      Codex CLI skill
    Use cases
      Turn idea into spec
      Story by story build
      Pre build audit
    Audience
      Vibe coders
      Founders
    Setup
      Install plugin
      Run install script
      Invoke slash command

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Turn a rough product idea into build ready specification documents.

USE CASE 2

Get an idea challenged by expert personas before committing to a build plan.

USE CASE 3

Generate an execute file that lets Claude Code build a project story by story.

USE CASE 4

Run an audit pass to catch flawed decisions before development starts.

What is it built with?

ShellClaude CodeCodex CLI

How does it compare?

chitransh-cj/kimchihackerschoice/tmuxr0b0tlab/hermes-concurrent-agents
Stars424242
LanguageShellShellShell
Setup difficultyeasyeasyhard
Complexity2/52/54/5
Audiencevibe coderops devopsdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

In plain English

Kimchi is a Claude Code and Codex plugin that turns a rough idea into documents an AI coding assistant can actually build from. The problem it targets is familiar: you type a vague prompt into an AI assistant, it fills in gaps you never specified, and hours later you end up with something close to what you wanted but not quite right, because the real plan only ever existed in your head. Instead of one agreeable assistant, kimchi runs your idea past eleven expert personas, covering product, architecture, design, security, finance, operations, and more, including one deliberately skeptical staff engineer character. Each persona questions your idea in its own area and pushes back rather than praising it, until most of the hard questions about the idea have real answers. Once the grilling is done, kimchi compiles the results into a set of build ready documents: one file per feature area with user stories, priority order, and business importance, plus a single file that locks in decisions like the tech stack, architecture, exact API contracts, and security and deployment choices, so those do not get re argued later. It also produces an execute file that lets Claude Code or Codex build the project piece by piece across multiple separate sessions, picking up where it left off using tracking files. Before building starts, an audit step checks the documents for problems while they are still easy to fix. You can install kimchi as a Claude Code plugin that updates itself automatically, or clone the repository and run an install script that detects which coding assistant you have and copies the skill files into the right folder for Claude Code or Codex. After installing, you invoke it with a short command and can either run the whole guided process or call up a single persona by name. The project is released under the MIT license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Use /kimchi to walk me through turning my idea into a build plan.
Prompt 2
Summon the architect persona to challenge my technical decisions.
Prompt 3
Use /kimchi generate to compile my build ready documents.
Prompt 4
Run /kimchi audit on my project docs before I start building.

Frequently asked questions

What is kimchi?

A Claude Code and Codex plugin that grills a raw idea through expert personas and turns it into build ready specification documents.

What language is kimchi written in?

Mainly Shell. The stack also includes Shell, Claude Code, Codex CLI.

How hard is kimchi to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is kimchi for?

Mainly vibe coder.

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