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.
How do I share my chains with my team?
Publish them as a Kraft add-on in a git
repository. Each person adds that repository as a
collection with
kraft admin addon collection add owner/repo, then installs the add-on with
kraft admin addon install ADDON@COLLECTION. Kraft prints what the add-on
changes and installs it only after you accept. Share chains with
add-ons covers both sides.
Kraft ships no collection of its own, so ask whoever published the add-on for
its address. A collection is a git
repository or directory with a .kraft/collection.json.
Is it safe to install an add-on?
An add-on cannot run a command, grant a permission or define a harness, and Kraft refuses one that tries. It does decide what the agent is told and which gates, models and limits its chains have, so read the review before you accept an install or an update. Auto-update is off unless you turn it on. Security says what an add-on can and cannot change.
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_toolsandgrants; - 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.