its-over-9k (o9k)

What does the scouter say about his context level? IT'S OVER 9000!!!

o9k is a meta-framework for AI coding agents. It doesn't invent yet another technique — it combines the best token-efficiency and agent-quality frameworks into one coherent, conflict-free system of Claude Code skills and plugins, wired to a persistent memory MCP.

Every framework below saves tokens or improves output on its own. Combined naively, they fight each other — two plugins hooking SessionStart, two output styles rewriting your prose, two "plans" claiming to be the source of truth. o9k's job is the arbitration layer: each concern has exactly one owner, and the pieces multiply instead of colliding.

The Five Pillars

Each pillar is an independent plugin. Install all five or cherry-pick — o9k-core is the only one the others assume.

Related MCP server: AI Long-Term Memory MCP Server

Why combining multiplies

• Less output → less context. Everything the agent says gets fed back into every later turn. caveman-style output doesn't just save this turn's tokens — it shrinks every future turn and delays compaction.

• Less context → better memory. What scout refuses to load blindly never has to be summarized away. What dispatch isolates in a subagent never pollutes the main context. Compaction fires later, loses less.

• Memory → less re-reading. A 300-token briefing from the memory backend replaces the 20k tokens of "let me look around the codebase" that every fresh session burns.

• Together: the agent's effective context — the fraction doing useful work — goes way past what any single technique achieves. It's over 9000.

Zero effort by design

The human should not have to do — or know — anything. After install, a SessionStart hook in o9k-core injects the doctrine automatically every session: the agent compresses its output, loads only what it needs, offloads noisy searches, and saves state before compaction — no commands, no reading, no habits to learn.

What automation can't do (picking a dispatch owner when superpowers is also installed, a one-time hmem init), the agent tells you about: on the very first session it offers a one-minute orientation, and /o9k-guide brings it back any time. The guide is personalized — it detects your actual setup and mentions only what's missing, offering to fix each item for you. A fully set-up install gets three sentences: everything runs by itself, nothing to do, /o9k-stats shows the effect.

Install

o9k is a Claude Code plugin marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add Bumblebiber/its-over-9k
/plugin install o9k-core@o9k
/plugin install o9k-caveman@o9k
/plugin install o9k-scout@o9k
/plugin install o9k-dispatch@o9k
/plugin install o9k-memory@o9k
/plugin install o9k-recon@o9k

Then set up the memory backend. hmem is the available default today:

npm install -g hmem && npx hmem init

TIM is a planned backend — not yet published. Once it ships, o9k-memory will auto-detect it (tim resolve-project) and prefer it; until then the hook falls back to hmem automatically, so nothing to change. Track it at Bumblebiber/tim.

One command for the companions

Don't hand-install the third-party frameworks below. o9k-recon ships a bundle installer that wires up a whole tested stack at once:

/plugin install o9k-recon@o9k

then run the companion-bundles skill (or install/o9k-companions.sh recommended --run). Bundles: minimal, recommended, max — see docs/BUNDLES.md.

Playing with others

o9k deliberately does not re-implement workflow methodology, issue tracking, docs injection, or symbol-level navigation — excellent frameworks exist for those. This matrix covers every o9k-compatible companion and how each pair gets along:

• 🟢 complement each other — worth more together than apart

• ⚪ don't touch — no interaction, safe by construction

• ⚠️ one rule needed — works once you name a single owner (see notes)

• 🔴 block each other — same concern, never both active

1. o9k × superpowers: keep o9k-dispatch OR superpowers' dispatch skills — one dispatch owner.

2. superpowers × beads/task-master: a plan store beats plan files — the store owns plans, disable superpowers' plan markdown. One plan owner.

3. plan stores × memory: the store owns work items, memory owns lessons/decisions. Never track the same work in both.

4. Grouped entries block each other too — BMAD, spec-kit, and SuperClaude all claim the methodology spine; any two of them collide.

Not in the matrix — replacements, not companions. Some frameworks claim a concern an o9k pillar owns; they never share a setup with o9k, so their pairings are moot. Run them instead of the pillar they displace, or not at all: claude-mem / mem0 (vs the memory backend), Graphify / claude-context / codebase-memory-mcp (vs scout's overview), token-optimizer-mcp (vs caveman+scout).

Full per-framework notes and install mechanisms: docs/COMBINING.md.

Scouting for new frameworks

The ecosystem moves weekly (9,000+ marketplace entries and climbing). o9k-recon ships framework-scout — a GitHub Scout skill that tells the agent where to hunt (Trending, Topics, the plugin directory, awesome-lists), how to score a candidate (concern → stars → freshness → license → install mechanism), and how to slot it into the matrix above (symbiotic / orthogonal / blocking) before proposing a bundle or matrix update. See plugins/o9k-recon/skills/framework-scout/SKILL.md.

Status

Early but functional. o9k-core and o9k-memory ship real hook automation:

• SessionStart (o9k-core) — injects a ~70-token doctrine directive (never documentation) so all installed pillars apply automatically; flags open arbitrations; offers /o9k-guide once on the first session. Disable via O9K_CORE_HOOK=off.

• SessionStart update check (o9k-core) — reports which pillars/companions are updatable, instantly from a cache; the actual version check runs detached in the background (once per O9K_UPDATE_INTERVAL_HOURS, default 24h), so it never slows session start. O9K_UPDATE_CHECK=notify (default) reports; auto also applies the safe npm-global updates; off disables. Plugins and the marketplace are always notify-only — never clobbered.

• SessionStart (o9k-memory) — detects the memory backend (TIM via tim resolve-project, else hmem) and injects a compact loading directive (never memory content). Stays silent if the backend's own hooks are already installed — one owner per concern. Disable via O9K_MEMORY_HOOK=off.

• PreCompact (o9k-memory) — fires the backend's checkpoint (tim checkpoint / hmem checkpoint) in the background before compaction summarizes the session away. Never blocks or delays compaction.

o9k-core also ships /o9k-guide (personalized setup orientation backed by a read-only detector script), /o9k-update (check pillars & companions for newer versions and apply the safe ones), and /o9k-stats: a zero-dependency analyzer over Claude Code's session transcripts — output share, cache hit profile, avg output per turn — so the savings are measured, not vibes.

Credits & prior art

o9k adapts ideas (and gives full credit) from: caveman by Julius Brussee (MIT), superpowers by Jesse Vincent (MIT), beads by Steve Yegge (MIT), aider's repo-map, LLMLingua, and Anthropic's multi-agent research system write-up. Memory by hmem (with TIM planned). Compatibility research also covers Context7, ccusage, claude-mem, claude-context, and the spec-driven crowd (spec-kit, BMAD, task-master) — see docs/COMBINING.md.

License

MIT