What it does
great_cto wraps a coding agent you already use in a staged pipeline. You describe a product or a feature and a set of specialist agents with narrow jobs takes it through brief, architecture, build, review and security. A second model from another family reads the same diff, and the repository says an independent model checks each stage before the next one builds on it. Three decisions stay with you: what gets built, how, and whether it ships. An approval-level setting in a project file controls where the pipeline stops, from only before deploy to strict checkpoints at design, code review and deploy, or none at all, while regulated products keep their security, compliance and ship gates at every level. Spending caps refuse to proceed rather than warn. It installs with npx great-cto init and is used through slash commands in Claude Code or through a terminal CLI. A local board at localhost:3141 shows your tasks, pending decisions and what has shipped, and marks checks that could not decide as unverifiable instead of passing them. OpenAI Codex is supported through the CLI. The README says it is built for one builder rather than a team, is not a hosted app builder or a CI/CD system, and that its compliance scaffolds are starting points rather than certifications.
Capabilities
- Pipeline of specialist agents running brief, architecture, build, review and security stages
- A second model from another family reviews the same diff
- Approval levels that decide where the pipeline stops for you
- Spending caps that refuse rather than warn
- Local board for tasks, pending decisions, cost and reviewers
- Slash commands in Claude Code and a terminal CLI, with Codex support
When to use it
- Shipping a product or feature with Claude Code while wanting independent checks at each stage
- Keeping your own sign-off on what is built, how, and whether it ships
- Solo builders who want visible cost tracking and hard spending limits
