Kilo Kit MCP
Runtime and skill library for coding agents: C4 workflow gates, guarded command execution and reasoning engines like Tree of Thoughts and 5 Whys.
Install
The installation steps are in the documentation below. Documentation
Documentation
From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.
Contents
- Kilo-Kit: Autonomous Cognitive Flow & Quality Engine for AI Coding Agents
- 🏛️ System Architecture & Division of Labor
- 🔄 C4 Cognitive Lifecycle & Low-Confidence Escalator
- 🛡️ Protocol-Level Hard-Gate Enforcement
- 🧰 The 24 All-in-One MCP Tools Suite
- 📚 180 Curated Skills Catalog Taxonomy
- ⚡ Quick Start
- 📊 Empirical Verification & Quality Benchmarks
- 📖 Documentation Directory Index
- 🧪 Development, Testing & Verification
- 📄 License
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Kilo-Kit: Autonomous Cognitive Flow & Quality Engine for AI Coding Agents
Version: 1.9.1
Author: Kilo-Kit Team
License: Apache 2.0
Kilo-Kit is an agentic MCP runtime and curated 180-skill catalog designed to enforce grounded diagnosis, Tree-of-Thoughts architectural planning, adversarial red-teaming, 4D quality verification, and continuous SQLite self-improvement for AI coding assistants.
🧠 Core Architectural Pillars:
- Division of Labor (Cortex vs Limbs): Kilo-Kit acts as the high-level cognitive brain (Tree of Thoughts, 5-Whys root cause analysis, adversarial stress-testing, context compaction) while host clients handle surgical I/O.
- Kilo-Sentinel Supervisor & Circuit Breaker: Real-time middleware enforcing Pre-flight Grounding Locks (no editing unread files), loop tripwires (identical call and edit-thrashing detection), and SQLite trajectory logging (
katl_trajectories). - Triangulated Cognitive Synthesis & Low-Confidence Escalation: Combines internal SQLite memory recall, GitHub 10k+ stars patterns, and ToT DAG benchmarking (
kilo_triangulate_research), with automatic subagent delegation when confidence < 0.70. - Fuzzy Skill & Alias Resolver: Instant, resilient skill loading with support for aliases (
brainstorming,diagnose,playwright,clean-code,tdd,grounded-research-benchmark). - 4D Quality Assurance & Playwright E2E Gate: Validates Given-When-Then acceptance criteria, clean code interfaces, UI/UX aesthetics, and automated Playwright browser/DOM verification before work is marked complete.
🏛️ System Architecture & Division of Labor
Kilo-Kit enforces a strict architectural boundary between High-Level Cognitive Reasoning (Cortex) and Surgical I/O Execution (Limbs):
flowchart TD
Clients["🖥️ Host AI Clients<br/>(Claude Code / Antigravity / Cursor / Gemini CLI)"]
Sentinel["🛡️ Kilo-Sentinel Supervisor & Circuit Breaker<br/>(Pre-flight Grounding Lock • Loop Tripwire • Step Budget)"]
subgraph Cortex["🧠 Kilo-Kit Cognitive Cortex (MCP Runtime)"]
direction TB
C4["🏛️ C4 5-Gate Lifecycle Controller"]
Engines["⚙️ 6 Cognitive Engines<br/>(ToT DAG • Adversarial Grill • 5-Whys • Grounded Synthesis)"]
Skills["📚 180 Curated Skills Catalog"]
Limbs["🛠️ Safe Execution Limbs<br/>(Atomic Write • AST Edit • Security Filtered Exec)"]
C4 --> Engines
C4 --> Skills
C4 --> Limbs
end
DB[("💾 SQLite Atomic Memory<br/>(cognitive_triangulations • katl_trajectories • facts)")]
Clients <-->|MCP Protocol / stdio| Sentinel
Sentinel <--> Cortex
Cortex <--> DB
🔄 C4 Cognitive Lifecycle & Low-Confidence Escalator
All agent tasks flow through a deterministic 5-Gate state machine. Unauthorized file mutations prior to Gate 3 approval are blocked at the server level:
flowchart LR
G1["<b>Gate 1: Grounded Probe</b><br/>• Memory Recall<br/>• Codebase Probe"]
G2["<b>Gate 2: Cognitive Reasoning</b><br/>• 3-Option ToT DAG<br/>• Adversarial Grill<br/>• Low-Confidence Escalator"]
G3["<b>Gate 3: Approval</b><br/>• Plan Locked<br/>• Skills Injected"]
G4["<b>Gate 4: Execution</b><br/>• Defense-in-Depth<br/>• Sentinel Guarded"]
G5["<b>Gate 5: 4D QA</b><br/>• Playwright E2E<br/>• SQLite Reflection"]
G1 --> G2
G2 -->|Confidence >= 0.70| G3
G2 -.->|Confidence < 0.70<br/>Escalation| Subagent["🔬 Research Subagent<br/>(GitHub & Docs Sandbox)"]
Subagent -.-> G2
G3 --> G4
G4 --> G5
G4 -.->|3x Loop Detected| Breaker["🛑 Circuit Breaker<br/>(Supervised Reset)"]
Breaker -.-> G1
🛡️ Protocol-Level Hard-Gate Enforcement
Traditional prompt rules (.cursorrules, CLAUDE.md) suffer from prompt drift. Kilo-Kit enforces safety via JSON-RPC Interceptor Middleware:
flowchart TD
Req["👤 User Prompt"] --> Agent["🤖 Host AI Agent"]
Agent -->|1. Unauthorized Edit Attempt| GateCheck{"🛡️ Kilo-Sentinel<br/>Pre-Flight Lock"}
GateCheck -->|❌ Uninitialized / Unread File| Blocked["🛑 403 Hard-Gate Blocked<br/>(Forces Planning First)"]
Blocked --> Plan["🧠 Gate 1 & 2: C4 Planning<br/>(kilo_orchestrate_task + kilo_triangulate_research)"]
Plan --> SaveDB[("💾 Commit CoT to SQLite")]
SaveDB --> Approval["👤 User Approves Plan"]
Approval -->|2. Authorized Execution| GateCheck
GateCheck -->|✅ State = READY| Exec["🚀 Gate 4: Safe Execution<br/>(kilo_write_file / kilo_edit_file)"]
Exec --> Verify["✅ Gate 5: 4D Verification & SQLite Reflection"]
🧰 The 24 All-in-One MCP Tools Suite
Kilo-Kit provides a complete, self-contained execution and cognitive runtime:
| Category | Tool | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Gating & Orchestration | kilo_orchestrate_task | C4 closed-loop gate. Enforces brainstorming and cognitive steps before code mutation. |
kilo_route_intent | Routes intent to best workflow chains, task modes, and rules. | |
kilo_get_skill | Loads curated SKILL.md workflows with token-safe truncation and session tracking. | |
kilo_search_skills | High-precision semantic and keyword search across 180 skills. | |
kilo_memory_report | Inspects persistent SQLite decisions, facts, and sessions. | |
kilo_remember_fact | Pins immutable operational rules and architectural decisions into SQLite memory_facts. | |
kilo_record_reflection | Self-Improvement: Persists reflections, correct/wrong paths, and lessons to SQLite. | |
kilo_route_report | Reports route telemetry, top skills, workflows, scores, and conflict penalties. | |
kilo_validate_skills | Validates entire skill catalog against the quality gate. | |
| Cognitive Reasoning | kilo_triangulate_research | Grounded Synthesis & Low-Confidence Escalator: Combines SQLite memory + GitHub grounding + 3-option ToT DAG, atomically commits reasoning to SQLite, and triggers research escalation when confidence < 0.70. |
kilo_think_step | Tree of Thoughts DAG: Step-by-step reasoning, 3-option trade-off matrix & hypothesis branching. | |
kilo_grill_plan | Adversarial Red-Teaming: Inversion, simplification, mobile touch & concurrency stress testing. | |
kilo_trace_root_cause | 5-Whys Diagnostic Engine: Recursive causal back-propagation with regression test scaffolding. | |
kilo_compact_context | Cognitive Compactor: 40-70% token savings while locking invariants. | |
kilo_synthesize_skill | Self-Evolution: Distills solved patterns into reusable skills. | |
| Sentinel & Supervision | kilo_sentinel_status | Supervisor Telemetry: Inspects circuit breaker state, step budget, and grounded files list. |
kilo_reset_circuit_breaker | Supervised Reset: Resets tripped circuit breaker with root-cause justification. | |
kilo_benchmark_solution | Industry Benchmark: Audits trajectory against GitHub standards and triggers re-planning. | |
| Safe Execution Suite | kilo_read_file | Line slicing, size capping, and repository boundary enforcement. |
kilo_search_files | Glob pattern search across directory trees. | |
kilo_grep_code | Line-by-line regex and substring search. | |
kilo_write_file | Atomic write with Protocol Hard-Gate, clean-code smell audit, and secret detection. | |
kilo_edit_file | Targeted search-and-replace with JSON syntax & bracket balancing audit. | |
kilo_run_command | Defense-in-depth terminal execution with security guardrails & command injection filtering. |
📚 180 Curated Skills Catalog Taxonomy
Skills are organized into 6 functional modules with instant alias mapping:
skills/
├── 🏗️ engineering/ (39 skills)
│ ├── backend-development, codebase-design, api-patterns, database-design
│ ├── nextjs-best-practices, react-patterns, tailwind-patterns, aspnet-core, better-auth
├── 🧩 problem-solving/ (24 skills)
│ ├── sequential-thinking, root-cause-tracing, systematic-debugging
│ ├── collision-zone-thinking, scale-game, simplification-cascades, inversion-exercise
├── 📋 productivity/ (33 skills)
│ ├── brainstorming, spec-driven-development, tdd-workflow, code-review
│ ├── grounded-research-benchmark, verification-before-completion, grill-me, subagent-driven-development
├── 🤖 agent-frameworks/ (26 skills)
│ ├── workflow-state-machines, agent-memory, agentic-rag, multi-agent-orchestration
│ ├── mcp-agent-patterns, code-agent-patterns, context-optimization
├── 🛡️ security/ (22 skills)
│ ├── ai-guardrails, red-team-tactics, security-best-practices, vulnerability-scanner
└── ☁️ devops-cloud/ (36 skills)
├── devops, server-management, chrome-devtools, performance-profiling, render-deploy
Fuzzy Alias Resolution: Calling kilo_get_skill("brainstorming") automatically loads productivity/brainstorming/SKILL.md.
⚡ Quick Start
1. Fast Setup (Recommended)
Install globally and automatically configure all detected AI clients (Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, Antigravity, Gemini):
npm install -g @vodailocz/kilo-kit-mcp
kilo-kit-init global
Verify system health:
kilo-kit-doctor
2. Zero-Install NPX (IDE Direct Integration)
Add Kilo-Kit directly to your client's MCP configuration without installing globally:
{
"mcpServers": {
"kilo-kit": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@vodailocz/kilo-kit-mcp"]
}
}
}
Supported in Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json), Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Windsurf, and Antigravity / Gemini CLI.
3. Team Repository Rollout
Bootstrap the Kilo-Kit C4 Cognitive Protocol into your project repository (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md):
kilo-kit-init init --client all
git add CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md GEMINI.md
git commit -m "chore: configure Kilo-Kit C4 protocol"
Or use the global git alias: git kilo-init
📊 Empirical Verification & Quality Benchmarks
| Metric | Without Kilo-Kit (Vanilla Agent) | With Kilo-Kit v1.9.1 | Verification Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silent Chained Tool Calls | 65% on fast models (empty text outputs) | 0% (100% Enforced) | Triple-Lock Schema + Sentinel Interceptor |
| Ungrounded Code Mutations | 42% of sessions (modifying unread files) | 0% (100% Blocked) | Server-side Pre-flight Grounding Lock |
| Context Window Longevity | Degrades at >30k tokens | Sustained >150k tokens | kilo_compact_context (40–70% token pruning) |
| Silent Regression Rate | 28% of PRs | < 2% | 4D QA (Playwright + Given-When-Then criteria) |
| Tool Thrashing / Infinite Loops | Common on complex bugs | Terminated ≤ 3 loops | Kilo-Sentinel Loop & Thrashing Tripwire |
| Self-Healing & Reasoning Recall | Zero across sessions | 100% SQLite Persistence | cognitive_triangulations & katl_trajectories |
📖 Documentation Directory Index
For detailed specifications, protocol definitions, and developer guides, explore the docs/ directory:
- 🏛️ **Architecture Overview** - System topology, Cortex vs Limbs, and Memory schema.
- 📜 **C4 Protocol Specification** - 5-Gate lifecycle state transitions and invariant rules.
- 🧰 **MCP Tooling Reference** - JSON schemas, error codes, and tool calling examples.
- 📚 **Skills Taxonomy & Authoring** - Skill catalog guidelines and authoring standard.
- 📊 **Benchmarks & Methodology** - Token reduction experiments and SWE-bench alignment.
- 🛡️ **Security & Guardrails** - Circuit breaker, input sanitization, and blast-radius control.
🧪 Development, Testing & Verification
# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/VoDaiLocz/KILO-KIT.git
cd KILO-KIT
npm install
# Run unit test suites (15/15 test files, 68/68 tests passing)
npm test
# Run full health diagnostics
npm run doctor
# Validate 100% of 180 skills against structural quality gates
node src/tools/validate-skill.js --all skills
📄 License
Distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. See LICENSE for more details.
Frequently asked questions
What is Kilo Kit MCP?
Runtime and skill library for coding agents: C4 workflow gates, guarded command execution and reasoning engines like Tree of Thoughts and 5 Whys.
How do I install Kilo Kit MCP?
Follow the installation steps in its documentation, shown on this page and in its repository.
Is Kilo Kit MCP open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license.
Who maintains Kilo Kit MCP?
It is published by VoDaiLocz. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.
From the community awesome-mcp-servers lists and the project's GitHub repository. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.