Chaotic - Agent-First Project Infrastructure

The Agent Runaway

AI coding agents have no brakes. They'll burn your token budget, ignore your architecture, and close 20 tickets in a loop without stopping to think.

Jira and Linear are human-first. Agents are guests in our world. In their world, they need physics.

agent.sh

$ chaotic issue move CHT-001 done

Issue CHT-001 moved to Done.

$ chaotic issue move CHT-002 done

Issue CHT-002 moved to Done.

$ chaotic issue move CHT-003 done

Issue CHT-003 moved to Done.

... 17 more tickets ...

$ chaotic issue move CHT-021 done

Error: Sprint is in arrears. Run `chaotic sprint close` to continue.

The Insight

You don't tell a toddler "don't fall down the stairs" 500 times.
You put a gate in front of the stairs.

Chaotic applies this to AI. The agent just uses a CLI. Sometimes commands succeed. Sometimes they fail with hard errors. The agent adapts to the world you've built.

Core Mechanics

1. Rituals

Rituals are checkpoints you define. They can trigger on sprint close, ticket claim, or ticket close:

Run the test suite
Attest documentation is current
Request an oppositional code review
File a design spec with the alternatives you considered
Reflect on what went well this sprint and vent about what frustrated you

Until rituals complete, the action is blocked. The pause is the point.

2. Sprints & Limbo

Sprints have point budgets. Exceed it, and the project enters Arrears. Close a sprint, and it enters Limbo until rituals clear.

Points_Spent > Budget ⇒ State: Arrears

The CLI blocks work until the constraint clears. Not a suggestion. A wall.

3. Human Gates

You set the autonomy level for each ritual.

Auto: Agent attests, work continues.

Review: Agent attests, you click Approve.

Gate: You do the ritual yourself.

How It Works

The CLI (chaotic)

Optimized for agents.

Structured errors
Predictable behavior
Copy-pasteable remedies

The Dashboard

Optimized for humans.

Set budgets & rules
Approve rituals
Watch it all happen

See It In Action

The agent hits a wall. You decide when to open the gate.

Agent Terminal

$ chaotic issue move CHT-042 done

Error: Sprint is in arrears.

Run `chaotic sprint close` to continue.

$ chaotic sprint close

Sprint 'Week 5' closed.

Run `chaotic ritual list` to continue.

$ chaotic ritual list

Sprint-Close Rituals:

• architecture-review (auto)

Review the codebase for brittle code or coupling issues.

• backlog-review (review)

Reprioritize tickets based on what you learned this sprint.

✻ Let me perform a thorough architecture review to check for brittle code, bad couplings, or high-value refactoring opportunities...

$ chaotic ritual attest architecture-review

Ritual 'architecture-review' cleared. 1 remaining.

$ chaotic ritual attest backlog-review

Ritual 'backlog-review' attested, pending human approval.

$ _

meanwhile

Human Dashboard

Approval Needed

Agent attested "backlog-review"

Sprint: Week 6 Limbo

21 Points Spent

20 Budget

Rituals:

architecture-review cleared backlog-review awaiting approval

Grows With You

Chaotic scales in two directions: human workflows and agent autonomy. Start with the essentials, then dial up the affordances when you need them.

Human affordances

Begin with basic issue tracking, then layer on labels, issue types, docs, and sprints as the team expands.

Agent affordances

Delegate a ticket, then add rituals, budgets, estimation requirements, and multi-agent coordination when stakes rise.

Drag the sliders to see the system surface more structure as you grow.

Human affordances Simple → Full stack

Start simple Full team

Agent affordances Basic → Orchestrated

Single agent Multi-agent

Human track

Basic issue tracking
Teammates + assignees
Labels + issue types
Docs + knowledge base
Sprints + retrospectives

Agent track

Basic issue delegation
Ticket-close rituals
Sprint budgets
Open/claim estimate rules
Sprint limbo + multi-agent tokens

More human structure ↔ more agent structure

Ready to build the world?

$ curl -sSL https://chaotic.sh/install.sh | sh

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