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CascadingDev (Simplified)

CascadingDev (CDev) is a Git-native AI-human collaboration framework that uses git hooks and cascading rules to enhance development workflows. This simplified version focuses on core functionality: pre-commit safety hooks, cascading .ai-rules.yml configuration, and the Ramble GUI for structured feature requests.

Features​

  • Cascading Rules System — Hierarchical .ai-rules.yml files where nearest file takes precedence, enabling directory-level behavior customization
  • Pre-commit Hook — Pure bash hook providing secret scanning, discussion summary generation, and flock-based concurrency protection
  • Ramble GUI — PySide6/PyQt5 dialog for capturing structured feature requests
  • Deterministic Builds — Reproducible installer bundle generation via cdev build
  • Two-Repository Architecture — Clean separation between tooling (this repo) and user project scaffolding

Quick Start​

# Create and activate virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip wheel PySide6

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Build the installer bundle
cdev build

# Install into a new project
python install/cascadingdev-*/setup_cascadingdev.py --target /path/to/myproject

Architecture​

CascadingDev/
├── src/cascadingdev/        # Core Python modules and CLI
│   ├── cli.py               # Main CLI entry point (cdev command)
│   ├── setup_project.py     # Installer script (copied to bundle)
│   └── utils.py             # Shared utilities
├── assets/                  # Single source of truth for shipped files
│   ├── hooks/pre-commit     # Git hook template (bash script)
│   ├── templates/           # Markdown templates for user projects
│   └── runtime/             # Python scripts (ramble.py, create_feature.py)
├── tools/                   # Build and test scripts
│   ├── build_installer.py   # Creates install/ bundle
│   └── smoke_test.py        # Basic validation
└── install/                 # Build output (git-ignored)

Key Paths in User Projects​

  • Root .ai-rules.yml — Global defaults
  • Docs/features/.ai-rules.yml — Feature-specific rules
  • .git/hooks/pre-commit — Installed safety hook

Part of a multi-project stack: