A few words in. A reviewed pull request out.
You write intent into spec.md. Specialist agents research, plan, build and review it. Merging and deploying stay with you.
$ ls .plans/
git log becomes the audit trail.Ten stops from a spec to production
Each state belongs to one agent, which works the plan and moves it to the next state. openlanes runs in rounds and stops when a full round changes nothing.
- Newleah-researcher
- Researchedyoda-writer
- Ready for Planningpalpatine-planner
- Plannedluke-backend
- Buildingluke-backend
- Building UIrey-frontend
- Ready for Reviewpull request opened
- In Reviewhansolo-reviewer
- Approved & MergedYou merge
- DeployedYou deploy
Pick a lane for each plan
Not every change needs a researcher. Set the lane in the frontmatter of spec.md, and openlanes skips the stops that lane doesn't make.
Settings are applied in this order: command-line flag first, then the plan's spec.md, then .openlanes.yml, then the built-in default.
When a decision is yours, the plan waits for you
Agents don't guess at things only a person can decide. They write the question into blocked.md, rename the folder, and move on to other plans.
- Technical block
- An engineer answers.
- Product block
- Product answers.
.plans/004.00-🅱️ → invoice-rounding/blocked.md## B2 Should totals round per line item or once on the invoice total? Rounding per line can change the total by up to one cent per line. ## A2 Decided 2026-10-12 by the CFO: round once, on the invoice total.
Five commands cover most days
openlanes is a Ruby gem. The control room needs Redis to run.
- openlanes init
- Writes
.openlanes.ymlwith the project name, default lane and how many plans to work at once. - openlanes create
- Starts a new plan folder from a few words.
- openlanes start
- Runs the agents and opens the control room at
127.0.0.1:11000. You answer blocks and add plans from the page. - openlanes status
- Lists every plan with its state and pull request.
- openlanes run -n
- Shows which agent would pick up each plan, without changing anything.
The crew
Each agent runs on the model its job needs. Opus does the planning and back-end work, and Haiku handles the paperwork.
- leah-researcherhaikuResearches a new idea across many sources.
- yoda-writersonnetTurns research into a full spec.
- palpatine-planneropusSplits the spec into units that can be built in parallel.
- luke-backendopusBuilds data, domain and API, with tests.
- rey-frontendsonnetBuilds the interface on top of that API.
- r2d2-mechanichaikuMakes quick-lane changes on its own.
- hansolo-reviewersonnetChecks the pull request against what the spec asked for.
- lando-brokerhaikuFolds your answers back into the plan.
- c3po-operatorhaikuAnswers questions about the run without changing anything.