Get started

What you need

• Claude Code, in a terminal, with a Claude account. Prompts are graded by Haiku on your own account.
• macOS or Linux. Windows is untested: the mod may run there, but nobody has tried it, and the local server needs Unix sockets.
• A GitHub account, to sign in to the online server.
• Optional: git, for commits and repos to count, and the GitHub CLI (gh), signed in, for merges you make outside Claude Code to count.

Install the mod

In Claude Code, install the pathofdev plugin from its marketplace:

/plugin install pathofdev --marketplace eliraz-refael/path-of-dev

On an older Claude Code that doesn't take --marketplace, add the marketplace first, then install from it:

/plugin marketplace add eliraz-refael/path-of-dev
/plugin install pathofdev@path-of-dev

Then restart Claude Code, so the mod loads.

Play online

The online server at api.pathof.dev is in open beta: anyone with a GitHub account can play. It keeps your save for you, on every machine you sign in from, and gives you a public profile page if you want one. Point the mod at it and sign in:

/pathofdev server online
/pathofdev login

/pathofdev login answers with a short code and a github.com address. Open the address, enter the code, and approve: a toast says when you're in. GitHub tells the server only who you are, your user id and login, and the mod asks for no access to your repos. Until you're signed in, what you do waits in a queue and is sent once you are.

/pathofdev logout signs you out again. Profile & privacy says what the server keeps, and how to export or delete it.

Or play locally

The mod starts out pointed at a local save in ~/.pathofdev, which needs no account and keeps everything on your disk. It needs the game server running from a clone of the repo, with Node 22.12 or later and pnpm:

git clone https://github.com/eliraz-refael/path-of-dev
cd path-of-dev
pnpm install
pnpm --filter @pathofdev/server start

Leave it running: the mod finds it within a few seconds. If you switched online, /pathofdev server play switches back. Until a server answers, the status line under your prompt says Path of Dev is offline and how to start it. Each server keeps its own save, so a local game and an online one don't mix.

The welcome

The first time the mod reaches a server, the /pathofdev pane opens on its welcome. In five short steps you name your character, choose your pet's egg (a fox, a slime, a robot or an owl) and name it, and see how prompts are graded. Tab moves between buttons, Enter presses one, and Esc hands the keys back to the prompt. Skip it if you like: /pathofdev welcome opens it again any time.

Your first prompt

Ask Claude for something real, in 6 words or more. Your prompt goes to Claude untouched; a moment later, in the background, Haiku grades it and the game server turns the grade into XP. The band above the prompt opens with the grade and the XP it earned, a toast sums up the reward, and the status line keeps your last grade.

Prompts with substance grade well: say what you want, point at the files or errors involved, say why, and say what done looks like. To see how a prompt was scored, press the band's scores button or run /pathofdev last.

At level 1, a handful of good prompts in, your egg is ready: hatch it from the band. From then on the work you already do pays too: tests going from red to green, commits, and the big one, a merged pull request. How it plays has every rule.

The band and the pane

The band

The band is drawn above Claude Code's prompt: your level and title, an XP bar, your gold, the mission closest to done and your pet. By default (auto) it stays folded away and opens only when something happens (a graded prompt, loot, a level-up, a finished mission, a badge, a tip from your pet), then folds again a few seconds later. While it's folded, a status line under the prompt keeps your level, XP, the missions running and your last prompt's grade.

Prefer it always open, or never? Set Band to full or line in the plugin's settings, in /config: every setting is on the commands page.

The pane

/pathofdev opens the pane, the game's hub, in tabs:

• Inventory: your pet (pat it, feed it, hatch it), your sigil and band styles to equip, and everything else you own.
• Shop: today's shelf of band styles, treats for your pet, rerolling and salvaging duplicates, and crafting from shards.
• Stats: how your last prompt was scored, your progress, streak and prompting profile (your strongest and weakest measures, with a tip), and where your public page is.
• Missions: today's dailies, and this week's weeklies to pick from or abandon.
• Welcome: the first-run guide, again.

Click a button, or press Tab and Enter once the pane has the keys. Esc hands them back to the prompt.

Updating

Claude Code leaves auto-update off for a marketplace like this one, so the mod stays at the version you installed. On the online server the band says when a newer one is out, once (a toast says it with the band set to line), and the /pathofdev pane keeps a line about it. To update, run this in your shell, then restart Claude Code:

claude plugin update pathofdev@path-of-dev

Or, in a session, open /plugin, find pathofdev on the Installed tab, and choose Update now.

To get each release without asking, turn auto-update on for the marketplace: /plugin, the Marketplaces tab, path-of-dev, Enable auto-update.

A local server tells no version, so playing locally the mod never says there is an update: update the plugin the same way, and pull the clone the server runs from. The changelog says what each version brought.

Uninstalling

Remove the plugin from /plugin's Installed tab, or in your shell:

claude plugin uninstall pathofdev@path-of-dev

Uninstalling leaves your save where it is. Online, export it or delete your account first if you want it gone: see export and delete. Locally, your save is the folder ~/.pathofdev, yours to keep or remove.