In this article
HVE Core Documentation
HVE Core gives your team production-ready agents, reusable prompts, coding instructions, and executable skills for GitHub Copilot. You get structured workflows (Research → Plan → Implement), schema-enforced quality gates, and role-specific tooling across 10 engineering disciplines. Install from the VS Code Marketplace and start shipping with AI-assisted engineering in minutes.
Choose Your Installation
| Option | HVE Core Extension | Selective Clone |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Every distributable agent, prompt, instruction, and skill | Complete or custom agents, prompts, instructions, and distributable skills |
| Best for | Teams that want managed updates and the complete content set | Teams that want repository-owned, reviewable component selection |
| Start | Install HVE Core | Use the included hve-core-installer skill with a pinned or cloned source |
Not sure which to choose? See the installation methods comparison for a detailed breakdown.
Find Your Path
New to HVE Core?
Get up and running with installation, configuration, and your first AI-assisted workflow.
- Install HVE Core covers three setup paths from marketplace extension to developer clone
- 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, selective 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, prompts, 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, prompts, 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
Agent Systems
Specialized agents are organized into functional groups that combine agents, prompts, 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
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,
/rpi, and the directrpi-*phase skills - Using Together describes phase coordination and durable handoffs
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-builderskill 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.