hector

hector sits between a product decision and a coding agent. It takes “build this” and turns it into a campaign of small, deterministic slices — each with one observable behavior, a frozen verify command, and capped editable paths — so a cheaper builder model can run it safely without re-litigating scope mid-task.

Lifecycle role

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Hector doesn’t write production code. A frontier orchestrator owns product judgment; hector converts that judgment into an executable contract; bob implements each slice inside its own worktree; abe or a human reviews anything uncertain. The point is to make the implementation task boring enough that a smaller, cheaper model can run it without drifting.

Each slice hector plans defines:

• one observable behavior
• the deterministic command that verifies it
• test/spec files kept as reference-only, not editable
• bob’s editable paths and scope caps, frozen before the build starts
• a review step that compares bob’s result against the original contract

What it’s for

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• Converting a request into a Bob-sized campaign — hector plan emits campaign YAML bob can run directly, or a needs_input response when the request doesn’t have enough proof or scope defined yet.
• Rejecting weak campaigns before they cost a build cycle — hector check statically flags dangerous or underspecified campaigns.
• Reviewing the result — hector review compares bob’s output JSON against the original contract and returns one of accept, accept_for_human_review, revise_campaign, split_task, or ask_human.
• Handing frontier models an exact contract — hector frontier-brief (and a --compact low-token variant) prints the handoff prompt an orchestrator model needs to request a campaign correctly.

Quick start

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cargo install --path .
hector init
hector frontier-brief
hector plan \
  --task "Add a focused Bob slice" \
  --verify "cargo test focused_slice" \
  --editable-path src/lib.rs \
  --reference-path tests/focused_slice.rs \
  --out campaign.yaml
hector check --file campaign.yaml
bob campaign --file campaign.yaml
hector review --campaign campaign.yaml --bob-result result.json

hector mcp exposes the same four operations — frontier_brief, plan_campaign, check_campaign, review_result — as a stdio MCP server, so a host agent can call them directly instead of shelling out.

Links

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• GitHub Repository
• Related: bob (the builder that runs hector’s campaigns)
• Related: abe (the judge for uncertain results)
• License: Apache 2.0