About Cool Workflow
Cool Workflow (cw) is a command-line tool for coding-agent work on repositories or document folders. It turns questions into cited reports, checks evidence, and supports offline verification of signed findings without running a model itself.
Key features
- 01Break questions into small tasks
- 02Create reports with code-location citations
- 03Stop results that lack evidence
- 04Verify signed reports offline
- 05Work with several coding agents
Use cases
- 01Save traceable conclusions from a code review
- 02Check whether signed findings were altered
- 03Resume a workflow that stopped early
MCP support
The project says it can run as an MCP server, but provides no details about its MCP interface.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project README
Get a saved report from your AI agent, with every claim tied to a line of code — not a chat answer you lose.
What is this?
Cool Workflow (cw) is a small command-line tool that turns your AI coding agent's chat answer — easy to lose, hard to check — into a saved report. Point it at a repo, or any folder of docs, and:
- It plans the work. Your question becomes a set of small tasks.
- Your agent does the work. CW never runs a model itself — your own agent reads and thinks.
- It writes a checked report. Every claim points to a real place in your code, like
file.ts:42. A result with no evidence stops instead of passing through.
The model is fuel. CW is the black-box recorder, the dashboard, and the gearbox — never the engine. It never calls a model API, never holds your keys, and never uploads your code.
Install
npm install -g cool-workflow
Or install with Homebrew
brew tap coo1white/cool-workflow https://github.com/coo1white/cool-workflow
brew install coo1white/cool-workflow/cool-workflow
cw version
Upgrade later with brew update && brew upgrade cool-workflow.
You need: Node.js v22.13 or newer. No agent yet? Step 1 below still works — CW never runs a model itself.
Works with your agent
| Agent | Flag | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | -claude | ✅ works |
| Codex CLI | -codex | ✅ works |
| Muse Code | -muse | ✅ works |
| OpenCode | -opencode | ✅ works |
| Gemini | -gemini | ✅ through opencode |
| DeepSeek | -deepseek | ✅ through opencode or an HTTP endpoint |
| Cursor | — | ⬜ not yet |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | — | ⬜ not yet |
| Aider | — | ⬜ not yet |
| Qwen Code | — | ⬜ not yet |
| Kimi | — | ⬜ not yet |
Not sure what you have? cw doctor checks your setup and cw fix prints the commands that put it right.
Quick Start
1 · See it work — 30 seconds, no agent needed
cw demo tamper
# → builds a real signed ledger, forges it three ways, catches all three offline
# → VERDICT: tamper-evidence holds ✓
2 · Ask a question about your code — one command
cw -q "How does auth work end-to-end here?"
CW uses the current repo and the first agent it finds on your PATH. Want a specific agent? Add a flag from the table above, such as -claude.
A full review takes about 4 minutes on a real repo (14 workers; the Map and Assess stages run at the same time). One focused question? Add --fast: 6 workers in place of 14, the same cited answer for fewer agent calls.
3 · Open the report
The report opens in your browser by itself when the run ends. It starts with the answer, then the evidence behind it. Later, open it again with:
cw report --open
Want to see one first? A real run's Workbench and report, rebuilt on every push: coo1white.github.io/cool-workflow (the report is at /report.html).
These three steps are the core path. Everything else is kept working, not grown.
Can You Trust the Report?
CW does not run the model — it keeps the books. Your agent signs its findings (ed25519), and cw report verify-bundle checks — offline, with only the public key — that every signed finding is in the report unaltered. CW holds no private key: the agent signs, CW only verifies. This proves the signed findings reached you unaltered — not that nothing else was added, and not that none were left out. See the Trust Model.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| No agent found | cw doctor — shows which agents are on your machine |
status: blocked | Set CW_AGENT_COMMAND=builtin:claude or pass -claude |
claude: command not found | Install Claude Code and run again |
| Where is my report? | <repo>/.cw/runs/<id>/report.md, or run cw report --open |
Missing required input: question | Add -q "<question>" |
| Run stopped before the end | Fix the cause, then cw --resume --run <id> takes it to the end; a worker that stopped gets fresh tries (inside the project, or add --repo <path>) |
... is not a git project | Run it inside the project, or pass --repo |
Run <id> was made for <folder> | The run belongs to another folder (a copied or moved repo): pass --repo <that folder>, or move it with cw run export and cw run import |
Learn more
- User Guide — your first ten minutes
- Why Cool Workflow
- How it works
- What you can run
- From your editor
- Trust & Audit
- Repo Map
- Wiki home
CW dogfoods its own release: every cut runs release-cut against this repo.
License
BSD-2-Clause. Built by COOLWHITE LLC.
Comments
New to MCP?
From what the protocol is to installing your first server, these answers cover most first questions.
An open protocol that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Clients talk to the model; MCP servers provide tools, resources and prompt templates. They exchange standard messages, so one server can be reused by many clients.