The Thought Layer Kit

The same rigor that runs in the web app also runs inside your own coding agent, as portable Agent Skills, a Pi package, and a CLI. Validate the idea, grill it into a buildable spec, then build and deploy it. Your own key, nothing phones home.

AI made building cheap. It did not make knowing what to build cheap, and it did not make a confident, defensible plan cheap. The Thought Layer Kit puts that rigor where building happens, then carries it all the way to a live thing you own. It is open source (MIT) and bring your own key by design. The point is to help people build real things instead of confident slop, not to sell a platform.

The loop, in order

1. Validate the idea. What it is, your domain knowledge, demand, the market, the 30-second pitch. A panel judges each at the idea's altitude, so a one-line idea is never audited for implementation details.
2. Make the model real. Time, costs, scale, pricing, the business model and its numbers, acquisition, relationships, support.
3. Design it (last). Draft the PRD with a first-cut glossary and testable requirements, then grill that draft against the domain until it is build-ready.
4. Build it. The agent builds the hardened PRD static-first into a predictable publish directory, honoring the glossary, requirement traceability, and the SEO layer.
5. Deploy it. Take the build live to a URL you own, with no lock-in.

Install it anywhere

The skills are plain Markdown and work in any agent that reads the Agent Skills format. The Pi package adds deterministic tools and slash commands. The CLI runs in any shell.

Pi

pi install npm:@hobocode/thought-layer

Claude Code (or any agent that reads Agent Skills)

git clone https://github.com/hobocode-ofc/thought-layer-kit
cp -r thought-layer-kit/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

Any shell agent (the CLI)

npx -y @hobocode/thought-layer tl read

What is inside

The rigor, as 12 Agent Skills

Skill	What it does
thought-layer-framework	The backbone. Walks the full staged framework in order and only reaches design at the end.
thought-layer-panel	Pressure tests one stage with an adversarial panel at that stage's altitude. Confidence score, grade, up to three fixes.
thought-layer-prd	Drafts the complete PRD from the validated idea and business model, with a glossary and testable requirements.
thought-layer-grill	Grills the draft PRD against the domain, one question at a time, and hardens it inline into a build-ready spec.
thought-layer-naming	Proposes names grounded in the business, each with a rationale, a style, and a domain-ready slug.
thought-layer-build	Builds the hardened PRD into a static-first, deploy-ready artifact, verified to run.
thought-layer-deploy	Takes the build live to a URL you own, with no lock-in.
thought-layer-speedrun	A fast, unranked path to a build-ready spec: no panel, no score, no gate.
thought-layer-strategy	Optional deep dive: positioning, the moat mechanism on an honest clock, beachhead to expansion, the incumbent response.
thought-layer-brand	Optional deep dive: the emotional promise, personality and archetype, voice, a name, and a visual brief.
thought-layer-market-research	Optional deep dive: the buyer and trigger, two sizings, demand evidence, competitors, willingness to pay, the wedge, why now.
thought-layer-business-model	Optional deep dive: the money flow, per-unit economics with every number sourced, pricing, and base, bull, and bear scenarios.

Six deterministic tools (Pi)

These run as real code, not the model, so the scoring and the math are exact and never re-derived.

Tool	What it does
tl_score	Aggregate confidence values into a stoplight status and a letter grade, using the exact bands.
tl_domains	Check domain availability across common TLDs (bring your own RapidAPI key, or a search link).
tl_project	Run the monthly business projection: break-even, year-one revenue and net, max drawdown, ending MRR.
tl_state	Read and write the portable progress file shared losslessly with the web app.
tl_scaffold	Generate a branded, SEO-complete static landing site as an instantly deployable floor.
deploy	Take the built site live to a user-owned Netlify URL.

Eight slash commands and a CLI

Slash commands map to the stages: /tl runs the whole flow, with /tl-speedrun, /tl-panel, /tl-prd, /tl-grill, /tl-naming, /tl-build, and /tl-deploy for each step. The tl CLI gives any shell agent the same state file, scaffold, and deploy operations. See the Pi guide and the Claude Code guide.

It speaks the web app's language

The kit reads and writes the same .thought-layer/state.json progress file the web app exports. A non-technical founder in the browser and a technical co-founder in an agent can pass one lossless file back and forth, resuming and collaborating across both surfaces.