HVE Core Documentation

HVE Core gives your team agents, coding instructions, and skills for GitHub Copilot. You get structured Research → Plan → Implement workflows, schema-checked quality gates, and role-specific tooling across 10 engineering disciplines.

Choose Your Installation

Most people should start with the plugin. Installing HVE Core compares every route.

Route	What you get	Choose it when
Plugin ⭐	Every agent, skill, and instruction, following main	You want the full set in VS Code or Copilot CLI
VS Code extension	Agents and skills from the VS Code Marketplace	You manage editor tools through the Marketplace
Repository copy	Copies of every component, owned by your repository	Your repository should own and customize HVE Core

Not sure which to choose? See the installation methods comparison for a detailed breakdown.

HVE Core no longer ships prompt files. If you used a former prompt command such as /rpi or /security-review, Retired Prompt Commands maps each one to its replacement.

Find Your Path

New to HVE Core?

Get up and running with installation, configuration, and your first AI-assisted workflow.

• Install HVE Core compares the plugin, extension, repository copy, and clone routes
• Run your first workflow walks through an end-to-end RPI example
• Understand the HVE Core identity to compare channels and release assurance

Leading a Team?

Set up HVE Core for your team with governance, repository adoption, and customization options.

• Team adoption guide covers governance, naming conventions, and onboarding
• HVE Core identity and channels explains how artifacts are bundled and distributed
• Customization guide covers the full spectrum from lightweight instructions to fork-and-extend

Contributing to HVE Core?

Create and maintain agents, prompts, instructions, and skills for the framework.

• Contributing guide explains artifact authoring standards
• Templates provide starting points for ADRs, BRDs, and security plans
• Architecture overview documents system design, components, and build pipelines

Going Deeper?

Explore advanced capabilities including Design Thinking coaching, security planning, and methodology reference.

• Design Thinking guides teams through nine methods across three spaces
• Project Planning covers ADR creation, BRD/PRD building, architecture diagrams, and security plan generation
• Security documentation covers threat modeling and security planning
• RPI methodology explains the Research, Plan, Implement, Review, and Follow-up workflow

Roles

HVE Core provides dedicated tooling for 10 engineering roles, each with curated agents, skills, and starter workflows. Find your role guide on the Role Guides page.

AI-Assisted Project Lifecycle

HVE Core supports a 9-stage lifecycle from initial setup through ongoing operations. Each stage maps to specific agents, skills, and role-specific guidance.

• Stage overview provides a full lifecycle map
• Implementation (Stage 6) is the highest-density stage with 30+ assets
• Discovery (Stage 2) covers research, requirements, and BRD creation

Explore the full lifecycle →

Agent Systems

Specialized agents are organized into functional groups that combine agents, skills, and instruction files into cohesive workflows.

• RPI Orchestration separates complex tasks into research, planning, implementation, and review phases
• Project Planning creates ADRs, BRDs, PRDs, architecture diagrams, and security plans through guided AI workflows
• Backlog Management automates work discovery, triage, sprint planning, and execution across Azure DevOps, GitHub, and Jira
• Additional systems are documented in the Agent Catalog

Browse the Agent Catalog →

RPI Methodology

Research, Plan, Implement, Review (RPI) decomposes complex engineering tasks into phase skills coordinated by RPI Agent or invoked directly.

• Why RPI? explains the problem statement and design rationale
• RPI overview introduces RPI Agent and the direct rpi-* phase skills
• Using Together describes phase coordination and durable handoffs
• RPI Workflow Canvas shows a session phase by phase beside the chat, where you answer the agent's decisions and send it input

RPI Documentation →

Design Thinking

The dt-coach agent guides teams through nine Design Thinking methods across problem space, solution space, and validation.

• Design Thinking Guide provides the overview and method catalog
• Why Design Thinking? explains when to reach for DT
• Using the DT Coach covers agent usage

Browse all Design Thinking docs →

Prompt Engineering

HVE Core structures AI artifacts with protocol patterns, input variables, and evidence-backed quality gates.

• The hve-builder skill creates, improves, refactors, replaces, reviews, and validates AI artifacts through one lifecycle
• AI Artifacts Overview covers common patterns across artifact types
• Activation Context explains when artifacts activate within workflows

Quick Links

Resource	Description
Customization Guide	Adapt HVE Core to your workflow
CHANGELOG	Release history and version notes
CONTRIBUTING	Repository contribution guidelines
Scripts README	Automation script reference
Extension README	VS Code extension documentation

🤖 Crafted with precision by ✨Copilot following brilliant human instruction, then carefully refined by our team of discerning human reviewers.