Clade — Structural Integrity for AI-Generated Code

AI code generators write locally correct code that becomes globally incoherent at scale. Clade is the enforcement layer that prevents this.

What Clade Does

Clade defines your application as a hierarchical communication system — a tree of IO protocols. Then it mechanically enforces that every code change respects the declared structure.

• Protocol Tree — declare what communicates with what, and through what protocol
• Zero-Coupling Enforcement — sibling nodes never import each other, all communication flows through the parent relay
• Structural Validation — clade check validates every change against the declared protocol tree
• MCP Server — Claude Code calls Clade tools automatically: preflight, check, sense, commit

Features

Protocol Tree Sidebar

Browse your application's communication structure directly in VS Code. Every node shows its IO protocol and status.

Interactive Dataflow View

Click any node to see its internal data flows rendered as an interactive DAG. Drag nodes, zoom, pan. Double-click to drill into children.

Live Enforcement

Run Check from the toolbar — nodes breathe while checking, then flash green (pass) or red (violations). Commit atomically with Commit.

Claude Code Integration

With the Clade MCP server configured, Claude Code follows the Clade workflow automatically:

1. Reads the protocol tree at session start
2. Runs preflight before writing code
3. Declares new nodes before implementing
4. Validates after writing code
5. Commits atomically

Getting Started

1. Install the Clade CLI

sudo curl -fsSL https://imlore.com/clade/releases/clade-0.1.0-macos-arm64 -o /usr/local/bin/clade
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/clade

2. Initialize a project

clade init "My application description"

This creates .clade/, CLAUDE.md, .mcp.json, and a git pre-commit hook.

3. Add protocol nodes

clade node add WeatherFetch --parent root --input "CityName" --output "WeatherData" --source src/weather_fetch.py

4. Open in VS Code

Open the project folder — the Clade Protocol Tree appears in the Explorer sidebar. Click any node to see the dataflow view.

Requirements

• Clade CLI — installed on PATH (clade --version to verify)
• Git — for atomic commits and history

Commands

Learn More

• Product Page
• Report Issues