Octocode: Research Driven Development for AI

Stop Guessing. Start Knowing.

Empower your AI assistant with the skills of a Senior Staff Engineer.

Installation

Prerequisites: GitHub authentication required. See Authentication Setup.

Recommended: Octocode CLI

npx octocode-cli install

Interactive setup wizard with GitHub OAuth, MCP server installation, and skills marketplace. Pass --ide <ide> for non-interactive install (e.g. npx octocode-cli install --ide cursor).

Alternative Methods

One-Click Install (Cursor)

Manual MCP Configuration

Add to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "octocode": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["octocode-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Research Skill (Direct Install)

npx add-skill https://github.com/bgauryy/octocode-mcp/tree/main/skills/octocode-research

MCP Server

The Octocode MCP Server connects your AI assistant to code:

GitHub & GitLab: Search repositories, find usage patterns, read implementations, explore PRs
Local Tools: Search code, browse directories, find files in your local codebase
LSP Intelligence: Go to Definition, Find References, Call Hierarchy -- compiler-level understanding

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/de8d14c0-2ead-46ed-895e-09144c9b5071

Skills

Agent Skills are a lightweight, open format for extending AI agent capabilities.Skills index: skills/README.md

Skill	What it does
Researcher	Code search & exploration — local LSP + external (GitHub, npm/PyPI)
Research	Multi-phase research with sessions, checkpoints, state persistence
Engineer	Understand, write, analyze, audit code — AST + LSP + dependency graph
Plan	Evidence-based planning: Understand > Research > Plan > Implement
RFC Generator	Formal technical decisions with alternatives, trade-offs, and recommendations
PR Reviewer	PR & local code review across 7 domains with LSP flow tracing
Roast	Brutal code critique with file:line citations and severity levels
Prompt Optimizer	Turn weak prompts into enforceable agent protocols
Doc Writer	6-phase pipeline producing 16+ validated docs

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5b630763-2dee-4c2d-b5c1-6335396723ec

Documentation

For the full documentation index, start here:docs/README.md

The Manifest

"Code is Truth, but Context is the Map." -- Read the Manifest for Research Driven Development to understand the philosophy behind Octocode.

Contributing

See the Development Guide for monorepo setup, testing, and contribution guidelines.

_{Built with care for the AI Engineering Community}

Octocode: Research Driven Development for AI