okrdev

Open source·MIT·Your repo, your files

Building got cheap.
Focus didn't.

okrdev is a free, open-source OKR operating framework with an AI coach built in. It installs into any business or project, knows your key results, challenges work that serves none, pre-drafts your weekly check-ins, and parks every shiny idea before it eats your week.

Add to ChatGPT — one click Claude Code — one paste Free · MIT · Level 0 in ten minutes

Installed from the plugin directory — no terminal, no marketplace command. Or read the manifesto first.

The deal

The AI keeps the humans on track. Humans stay sovereign.

The standard arrangement is humans supervising the AI. okrdev adds the mirror image: a coach that knows your mission and this cycle's objectives, and asks the one question that matters before anything gets built. You can always override it — and every override is written down. Freedom, with a memory.

01

Park, don't chase

Distraction isn't a character flaw — acting on it the moment it arrives is. Capture any idea in ten seconds with /okrdev:park. Weekly triage promotes it, archives it, or sanctions it as a time-boxed side-quest. The good ideas survive triage. The dopamine doesn't.

02

The 15-minute check-in

The coach pre-writes your weekly check-in from git history and merged PRs — confidence table, what moved, what drifted. Humans add the parts only they know. Wins first, no guilt trips, and a skipped week earns a two-minute catch-up, not an inquisition.

03

Override, on the record

The coach can never block you. It has exactly one power: it writes things down — judgment calls, drift, emergencies that weren't. Accountability without authority. It turns out that's plenty.

Git-native OKRs

Objectives, key results, check-ins, retros — markdown files in your own repo. Versioned, reviewable by PR, greppable by agents. No SaaS, no lock-in: uninstall is rm -rf okrdev/.

The right amount of teeth

The coach classifies work against your KRs, flags drift, and pushes back on vanity metrics and sandbagged targets — at planning, not just at the retro.

Anyone owns anything

With AI filling skill gaps, a marketer can ship a migration and an engineer can run a pricing experiment. Every objective gets exactly one human DRI, end to end.

Health metrics

Every target you push gets a metric watching what you might break — monitored, not targeted. The Goodhart defense, built in.

Rails, not vigilance

Optional collaboration rails — KR: tags on PRs, a gate that asks which KR, CODEOWNERS, protected branches — so safety is an environment, not a behavior.

An optional stack

For greenfield projects: Vercel + Neon + GitHub with per-PR preview environments and CI gates, so non-technical builders ship safely because unsafe paths are hard.

Adoption

Start at the bottom. Earn your way up.

Frameworks die of over-installation — ceremony before value gets the whole thing deleted by week three. okrdev installs one rung at a time and never adds a level uninvited. Existing codebase? Keep your stack: the method is fully decoupled from it.

Level 0
Parking lot

Idea capture + weekly triage. Nothing else. If you only ever install one rung, install this one.

10 minutes
Level 1
The method

Mission, cycle OKRs, weekly check-ins, retros. This is okrdev proper.

one planning session
Level 2
Collaboration rails

KR: tags on PRs, the okr-gate nudge, CODEOWNERS, branch protection — for teams.

an afternoon
Stack
Optional stack module

The full Vercel + Neon AI-first environment. Greenfield projects, or deliberate migrations only.

a day

The ladder goes both ways: if a level stops earning its minutes, remove its files and drop a rung. A framework you actually run at Level 1 beats one you resent at Level 2.

Quickstart

One click to install. One directory to uninstall.

okrdev is listed in the ChatGPT plugin directory, so the shortest path is a button — no terminal, no marketplace command, nothing to copy — and the same button covers the Codex CLI. Claude Code gets there in a single paste.

Easiest — one click, no terminal

ChatGPT & Codex

Open the listing and press Install plugin. That is the whole install — and the same button covers the Codex CLI.

Install from the directory →

Then @okrdev and ask it to install okrdev in this repo.

  • no MCP server to authorize
  • no account, no keys
  • nothing to copy or paste
  • uninstall is one directory

One paste

Claude Code

Hand it to any Claude Code session — the desktop app counts — and it runs for you. It uses the CLI you already have and installs nothing.

Set up okrdev for me, in this order:1. Find a claude binary. PATH first; if it is not there, the
   Claude desktop app ships one kept off PATH. Install nothing.
2. With it: plugin marketplace add backedbydata-co/okrdev
   then:    plugin install okrdev@okrdev
3. Tell me to restart the session.

Click the block to select it all, then copy.

# However you installed it — with your project open,
# ask for these by name or in plain language:
/okrdev:install   # walks the adoption ladder, starts at Level 0
/okrdev:plan      # ready for Level 1? draft your first cycle's OKRs
  • /okrdev:park — "park this idea": 10-second capture, back to work
  • /okrdev:triage — weekly at Level 0; from Level 1 it runs inside checkin
  • /okrdev:checkin — weekly: pre-drafted, wins first, 15 minutes for real
  • /okrdev:coach — anytime: confidence trends, drift, "is this aligned?"
  • /okrdev:side-quest — sanction a distraction, with a time-box
  • /okrdev:retro — end of cycle: score honestly, extract lessons

Which agent?

okrdev is one plugin for ChatGPT/Codex and Claude Code — same skills, same files, same eight commands. Only the keystroke differs: Codex reaches them with an @ mention, Claude Code as /okrdev:park. Plain language works in both.

New to either?

If you already use ChatGPT, the directory button above is the whole setup — no terminal at any point. Claude Code is Anthropic's agent; get the desktop app at claude.com/claude-code, and you can stay out of a terminal there too — hand the paste above to a code session and Claude runs it. It also runs as a CLI and in IDEs, and okrdev works in all of them; ./okrdev/install.sh does the whole thing in one for scripts and CI, where there is no agent to ask.

What it touches

One okrdev/ directory and one marked, removable block in your agent's instructions file — CLAUDE.md on Claude Code, AGENTS.md on Codex, never both. Level 2 optionally adds a few files under .github/. Your build system, deploy pipeline, and framework choices: untouched.

Some other agent?

The skills are plain markdown — copy them into your repo and hand any capable agent the docs. The format is the framework.

Not a software business?

The method runs fine in a repo that contains nothing but the okrdev/ directory. OKRs, check-ins, and the parking lot don't care what you sell.

Get help

The framework is free. The help is optional.

okrdev is complete on its own — the paid paths buy help and accountability, not features. There is no locked tier.

DIY — do it yourself

Self-serve

Free · MIT-licensed

  • The full framework: coach, parking lot, check-ins, retros
  • Docs written for non-technical DRIs too
  • A complete worked example — a full fictional cycle, warts included
  • Level 0 in about ten minutes
Install it now

DWY — done with you

Coached group

Small cohort · led by Alex Chisholm, okrdev's author

For when the method sticks but the discipline doesn't.

  • Install together and plan your first cycle live
  • Your OKRs pressure-tested — sandbagging and vanity metrics called out before the cycle starts
  • A weekly group check-in alongside other teams running the same method
  • Direct line to Alex between sessions
Ask about the next group

DFY — done for you

Foundation + Duty of Care

Delivered by Tech Guys on Demand — a division of Tech Guys Who Get Marketing.

Fixed-scope audit, then monthly care · priced on a call

  • We install okrdev and the engineering foundation under it: automated checks on every change, a preview link to click before anything ships, one-way-only production deploys (nobody edits production by hand)
  • Then Duty of Care: a named engineer with a written response-time guarantee, who reviews every change before it ships, watches the checks guarding your production, and runs your monthly OKR review
  • Starts with a one-week Foundation Audit — 100% credited if you proceed
  • Architected by Alex Chisholm — okrdev's author and CTO of Tech Guys Who Get Marketing — and delivered by your named engineer, so care never waits on the author's calendar
Book a Foundation Audit

Not sure which? Install it yourself first — it's free and takes ten minutes. You can add help later; the framework doesn't change underneath you.

Questions

The honest fine print.

Is it actually free?

Yes. MIT license, no feature gates, no telemetry, no account. Your OKRs are markdown files in your own repo — delete the okrdev/ directory and okrdev never existed. The paid paths above buy human help, not software.

Will the coach block my work?

Never. Blocking is how tools get uninstalled — usually mid-crisis, usually forever. Overrides always work, and every one leaves a line in the week's check-in. Accountability without authority.

Which agent do I need?

The shortest path is ChatGPT: okrdev is in the plugin directory, so it's one button and you're installed — then @okrdev in ChatGPT or Codex. Claude Code takes one paste — ask any Claude Code session to run claude plugin marketplace add backedbydata-co/okrdev && claude plugin install okrdev@okrdev — after which okrdev is in every session including the desktop app. Neither? The skills are plain markdown: copy them into your repo and hand any capable agent the docs.

What does the plugin get access to?

Your files, and nothing else. okrdev ships skills only — no MCP server, no telemetry, no account, no network calls of its own. It reads your repo and writes markdown into it; installing it grants no third party anything, because there is no third party.

We already have a stack. Do we have to migrate?

No. The method is fully decoupled from the stack: Levels 0–2 don't care whether you deploy to Vercel or a VPS, use Postgres or a spreadsheet, or even write code. The opinionated stack module is for greenfield projects and deliberate migrations only — it's never a prerequisite.

What does okrdev refuse?

Cascade theater (no trees of aligned sub-OKRs), set-and-forget plans, metric tyranny (every pushed target gets a health metric watching what it might break), and ceremony — a three-line check-in is valid, and a skipped week gets a two-minute catch-up.

Who's behind it?

okrdev is built in the open by Alex Chisholm, and it runs on itself — this cycle's OKRs, check-ins, and parking lot are in the repo for anyone to read. This page lives there too, under site/.