CDAL

Contract-Driven Agentic Loop (CDAL)

"Your agents write the code. CDAL makes it shippable."

Autonomous AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini/Antigravity) write code at incredible speed. However, without external physical constraints, agents exhibit predictable failure modes:

  • Self-grading: The agent writes the code, breaks a test, then rewrites the test assertions so everything appears "green".
  • Silent degradation: Silencing type errors with @ts-ignore and as any, skipping broken tests with .skip(), or leaking hardcoded API keys.
  • Specification drift: Disconnecting code implementation from core business requirements over multi-turn agent sessions.

CDAL Kit solves this by establishing contract-driven development with enforceable physical quality gates:

PLAN ──► CONTRACT ──► RED ──► GREEN ──► VERIFY ──► REVIEW ──► INTEGRATE

Core Pillars of CDAL

  1. Contracts as the Single Source of Truth (*.contract.mjs): Declarative domain invariants and state machines defined in pure ECMAScript. No build step required.
  2. Deterministic Code & Docs Generation (cdal codegen): Emits immutable TypeScript types and Mermaid diagrams directly from contracts. Zero manual sync drift.
  3. Physical Role Scoping (denyTests: true): The implementer role is physically blocked by PreToolUse hooks (exit code 2) from modifying test files. The developer cannot grade their own work.
  4. Traceability Matrix (cdal trace --enforce): Every requirement (REQ-*) is mapped 1:1 to automated test suites tagged with // @REQ: <ID>.
  5. Mutation Testing for Gates (cdal selftest): Proves that your quality gates are not decorative by deliberately injecting mutations and verifying that every validator invariant fails red.
  6. Zero Runtime Dependencies in Core: @cdal/core is pure Node.js ESM. PreToolUse hooks execute in under 150ms p95.
  • Getting Started: Install CDAL and initialize your first repository in 3 minutes.
  • Concepts: Dive into contracts, kinds, roles, the loop, and quality gates.
  • CLI Reference: Detailed options and flags for all cdal commands.
  • Runtime Adapters: Setup Claude Code hooks, AGENTS.md, Cursor rules, and Antigravity.
  • Custom Kinds: Build and test custom contract abstractions with full mutation testing.
  • Quick start in Polish: The getting-started guide in Polish (10 minutes).
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