Pennyfarthing

v10.0.5 | The outer loop goes once, the inner loop goes many times.

A Claude Code agent orchestration framework built around three pillars: a flexible development platform, scientific personality research, and streamlined integrations.

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What is Pennyfarthing?

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A multi-agent system with customizable BikeLane workflows for structured software development:

- 10 Coordinated Agents - SM, TEA, Dev, Reviewer, Architect, PM, Tech Writer, UX Designer, DevOps, Orchestrator
- 8 BikeLane Workflows - Phased (TDD, BDD, Trivial), Stepped (Architecture, Release, Git Cleanup)
- 49 Slash Commands - Entry points for agent activation and workflows
- 22 Skills - Reusable knowledge domains (testing, code-review, jira, mermaid, etc.)
- Prime Context System - Tiered context injection assembles agent definition, persona, session state, and sidecar memory
- Automatic Handoffs - Context-aware agent transitions via subagent delegation
- Agent Sidecars - Persistent learning files where agents record patterns, gotchas, and decisions across stories

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A scientific study of how strong personalities affect AI agent behavior:

- OCEAN Profiling - Big Five personality scores for every character
- TRAIL Framework - Categorizing errors (reasoning, planning, execution) and correlating with personality
- Benchmarking System - /solo, /benchmark-control, /benchmark for statistical evaluation
- JobFair - Discovering which characters excel at roles beyond their native specialization

The 97 persona themes (Discworld, Star Trek, Breaking Bad, etc.) are instruments of inquiry, not decoration. Early findings show character expertise often trumps abstract personality scores.

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- Cyclist Visual Terminal - Electron-based IDE with 15 draggable Dockview panels, agent portraits, tool visualization, and workflow controls
- Jira Integration - Bidirectional sync, epic auto-creation, sprint velocity
- Sprint Management - Story tracking with current-sprint.yaml

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97 themes with OCEAN spider charts, benchmark tiers, and character profiles.

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Quick Start

``bash
cd your-project

Install CLI

npm install --save-dev @pennyfarthing/core

Initialize (creates symlinks)

npx pennyfarthing init

Verify installation

npx pennyfarthing doctor

Start working (in Claude Code)

/new-work
`

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`bash


Install Cyclist (includes portraits)

npm install --save-dev @pennyfarthing/cyclist

Launch

npx pennyfarthing cyclist
`

Cyclist Visual Terminal

Cyclist is an Electron-based IDE built on React 19, Tailwind v4, and Dockview. It wraps Claude Code with a rich panel system and workflow controls.

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All panels are draggable, floatable, and splittable:

| Panel | Purpose |
|-------|---------|
| Message | Conversation stream (always visible) |
| Sprint | Current sprint stories and progress |
| Progress | TDD/BDD phase visualization |
| BikeLane | Stepped workflow state and navigation |
| Acceptance Criteria | Story ACs with pass/fail tracking |
| Changed | Files added or modified during the session |
| Diffs | Git-based diff viewer for current changes |
| Git | Branch management and git operations |
| Todo | Task list tracking |
| Audit Log | Timestamped action history |
| Settings | Permission mode, relay mode, bell mode toggles |
| Debug | Prime context inspection with token counts |
| Background | Background job monitoring |
| TTY | Integrated terminal |
| Workflow | Workflow navigation and status |

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Cyclist renders tool use as human-readable summaries instead of raw JSON. Consecutive identical tool calls are stacked, and results are collapsible.

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| Mode | Description |
|------|-------------|
| Permission Mode | plan / manual / accept — controls how much Claude can do without approval |
| Relay Mode | Automatic agent handoffs — detects CYCLIST:HANDOFF markers and runs the next agent |
| Bell Mode | Queue messages while Claude works — injected at next tool execution via hooks |

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Each of the 97 persona characters has a unique portrait displayed in the conversation stream, making multi-agent workflows visually distinct.

Prime Context System

Prime assembles the full agent context at activation: agent definition, persona character, behavior guide, sprint state, active session, and sidecar memory. This is injected via --append-system-prompt so agents behave identically whether launched from Cyclist or the CLI.

Prime uses tiered injection to manage token overhead:

| Tier | Tokens | When |
|------|--------|------|
| Full | ~4000 | New session or new agent |
| Refresh | ~2000 | Same agent, stale context |
| Handoff | ~1000 | Agent-to-agent transition |
| Minimal | ~200 | Deep in same agent session |

Agent Sidecars

Sidecars are persistent learning files where agents record what they discover during story work. Each agent maintains three files in .pennyfarthing/sidecars/:

- {agent}-patterns.md — Strategies and patterns that worked
- {agent}-gotchas.md — Mistakes and edge cases to avoid
- {agent}-decisions.md — Architecture decisions and rationale

Agents write to sidecars before every handoff. Prime loads them on activation, so agents build on previous experience instead of rediscovering the same issues.

BikeLane Workflows

BikeLane is the umbrella workflow system supporting two types:

| Type | Description | Examples |
|------|-------------|----------|
| Phased | Agent-driven with automatic handoffs | tdd, bdd, trivial, agent-docs |
| Stepped | Progressive disclosure with user gates | architecture, release, git-cleanup |

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| Agent | Role | Phase |
|-------|------|-------|
| SM | Scrum Master | Story selection, session setup, completion |
| TEA | Test Engineer | Write failing tests (RED) |
| Dev | Developer | Make tests pass (GREEN) |
| Reviewer | Code Reviewer | Quality validation, approve/reject |

Use /workflow list to see all workflows. Use /workflow start to begin any stepped workflow.

Benchmarking & Personality Research

Pennyfarthing includes a scientific benchmarking system for evaluating how personality affects agent performance:

`bash


Run a single agent on a scenario

/solo theme:agent --scenario cache-invalidation

Create a control baseline (10 runs)

/benchmark-control reviewer --scenario order-service

Compare persona vs control with statistics

/benchmark breaking-bad reviewer --scenario order-service
`

Key Findings:
- Cohen's d effect sizes measure performance differences
- Multivariate OCEAN patterns predict better than individual traits
- Character expertise often trumps abstract personality scores
- The "Stoic Analyst" profile (Low O + High C + Low E + Low N) excels at code review

See Benchmarking Documentation for methodology.

CLI Commands

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| pennyfarthing init | Initialize in a project |
| pennyfarthing update | Update to latest version |
| pennyfarthing doctor | Check installation health |
| pennyfarthing doctor --fix | Auto-fix common issues |
| pennyfarthing uninstall | Remove for clean reinstall |
| pennyfarthing theme list | Show available themes |
| pennyfarthing theme set | Change active theme |

Documentation

| Document | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| User Guide | Complete documentation |
| Getting Started | Quick start guide |
| Workflow Diagrams | Visual Mermaid diagrams for all workflows |
| BikeLane | Workflow system architecture |
| Agents | Agent reference |
| Commands | Slash command reference |
| Benchmarking | Scientific persona evaluation |
| Jira Integration | Jira CLI and sprint sync |
| Cyclist | Visual terminal documentation |

Available Themes (97)

Core includes 26 themes. Optional theme packs add 98 more across 7 packages:

| Package | Themes | Examples |
|---------|--------|----------|
| @pennyfarthing/core (included) | 26 | the-expanse, star-trek-tng, breaking-bad, discworld, game-of-thrones |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-prestige-tv | 17 | succession, the-wire, mad-men, fargo, the-sopranos |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-literary | 15 | shakespeare, jane-austen, sherlock-holmes, 1984, great-gatsby |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-realistic | 14 | ancient-philosophers, jazz-legends, film-auteurs, software-pioneers |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-comedy | 9 | the-office, parks-and-rec, ted-lasso, monty-python, futurama |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-scifi | 8 | foundation, snow-crash, neuromancer, babylon-5 |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-mythology-fantasy | 4 | greek-mythology, norse-mythology, his-dark-materials, the-witcher |
| @pennyfarthing/themes-superheroes | 4 | marvel-mcu, avatar-the-last-airbender, legion-of-doom |

All themes include OCEAN (Big Five) personality profiles. See Theme Comparison for personality analysis.

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`bash


Install individual packs

npm install --save-dev @pennyfarthing/themes-prestige-tv

Or install all theme packs at once

npm install --save-dev @pennyfarthing/themes-{comedy,literary,mythology-fantasy,prestige-tv,realistic,scifi,superheroes}
`

Configure in .pennyfarthing/config.local.yaml:
`yaml
theme: the-expanse
`

Directory Structure

After initialization:

`
your-project/
├── .pennyfarthing/
│ ├── agents/ # → symlink to @pennyfarthing/core
│ ├── guides/ # → symlink to @pennyfarthing/core
│ ├── personas/ # → symlink to @pennyfarthing/core
│ ├── scripts/ # → symlink to @pennyfarthing/core
│ ├── workflows/ # → symlink to @pennyfarthing/core
│ ├── sidecars/ # Agent learning files (local, writable)
│ ├── settings.local.json # Claude Code settings
│ └── config.local.yaml # Theme selection
├── .claude/
│ ├── commands/ # → symlinks for Claude Code discovery
│ └── skills/ # → symlinks for Claude Code discovery
├── sprint/
│ ├── current-sprint.yaml # Active sprint
│ └── archive/ # Completed sessions
└── .session/
└── {story-id}-session.md # Active work session
`

What's New in v10.0.0

- Clean Install Consolidation - All managed files under .pennyfarthing/ instead of scattered across .claude/, .git/hooks/, .session/. Legacy installs migrated automatically via pennyfarthing update`
- Tool Use Approval System - Hook-based permission flow with severity classification, grant persistence, agent-level scoping, and workflow presets. Replaces legacy IPC approval
- Smooth Plan Mode Exit - Tirepump choice UI for transitioning out of plan mode

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- v9.3 - Theme packages (97 themes across 7 packs), release workflow, shadcn/ui migration
- v9.0 - Dockview panel system, React 19 rewrite, tool visualization, prime context, bell/relay modes
- v8.x - BikeLane workflows, scientific benchmarking, JobFair, agent sidecars

See CHANGELOG.md for full details.

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License

Copyright 2025-2026 1898 & Co. All rights reserved.