FAQ

Questions that come up before and after a first work item.

Does Kraft work only with GitHub?

No. Kraft opens and merges changes on GitHub through gh and on GitLab through glab. A repo's forge is recorded when you connect it, from its origin.

Can I use it without Claude Code?

Partly. Kraft ships seven harnesses: Claude, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini, Antigravity and Amp. Every agent task in the shipped chains names Claude, so to run without it you change each task's harness:. See Switch a task to another harness.

Any agent that speaks MCP can drive Kraft with kraft admin mcp, and any shell can use the kraft command.

What does it cost?

Kraft is free and Apache-2.0 licensed. Your agent provider bills you for the sessions Kraft runs, and a fresh install caps that spend per work item and per day. Caps and budgets has the amounts.

Does it run on Windows?

No. Kraft supports macOS and Linux. WSL is untested. See Supported platforms.

What makes a good spec?

Start with a good description: it is the brief the spec is written from, and the title is only a label. A good spec names:

• the problem, in the repo's own terms;
• the approach, and the options you rejected;
• what is out of scope;
• the tests that prove it.

If you already have a spec or plan, attach it with kraft item create --spec PATH --plan PATH, and Kraft skips writing and approving it again. The rules for PATH are in Attach a spec or plan.

A spec kept outside the repo, such as in ~/notes, is refused with attachment path escapes the repo. Copy it in, for example to .engineering/specs/, and give that path.

Kraft or Kraft Lite?

Use Kraft when work should run without you watching, in its own worktree, across sessions and restarts, with a board and caps. Use Kraft Lite when you want the same chain and gates inside one agent session, with no server to run.

Can I approve each tool call myself?

No. A worker runs unattended, and Kraft's permission gate answers each tool call from the task's policy, never by asking a person. To control what a worker may do:

• set allowed_tools, deny_tools and grants;
• run it in a sandbox;
• review its work at the gates between nodes.

Related

• Install: install Kraft and check that it works.
• Your first work item: connect a repo and take one item to a merge-ready diff.
• Why Kraft: what it does that a session, a loop or a skill does not, and when not to use it.
• Troubleshooting: the reason Kraft shows for a stopped item, a failing doctor row, and their fixes.