Add optional ChaosEngine skills
A plain ChaosEngine install gives you the lean core only. Extra skill sets ship as add-ons. None is installed by default, and none is picked for you from your project files. You choose them with a flag, and your choice is kept on every upgrade until you remove it.
Choose your add-ons
| Add-on | Install it when | Shell flag | PowerShell switch |
|---|---|---|---|
design-skills | You design web pages, images, motion graphics, or videos and want checked results | --with-design-skills | -WithDesignSkills |
shaft-engine-users | Your test project uses SHAFT and you want the SHAFT test-writing skills | --with-shaft-engine-users | -WithShaftEngineUsers |
shaft-core-developers | You change the SHAFT engine itself (it also adds shaft-engine-users) | --with-shaft-core-developers | -WithShaftCoreDevelopers |
Remove an add-on with --without-<name> or -Without<Name>. You can pass
several flags in one command.
Install with add-ons
Run the command from your project folder.
On macOS or Linux, add the flags after the script URL:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ShaftHQ/SHAFT_ENGINE/main/chaos-engine/install.sh | bash -s -- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ShaftHQ/SHAFT_ENGINE/main/chaos-engine/install.sh --with-shaft-engine-users --with-design-skills
On Windows PowerShell, the short irm ... | iex form cannot take switches.
Use the script-block form:
& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ShaftHQ/SHAFT_ENGINE/main/chaos-engine/install.ps1))) -WithShaftEngineUsers -WithDesignSkills
Or set CHAOS_ENGINE_ADDONS and keep the short form. This works with every
installer:
$env:CHAOS_ENGINE_ADDONS = "shaft-engine-users,design-skills"; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ShaftHQ/SHAFT_ENGINE/main/chaos-engine/install.ps1 | iex
Check what is installed
python3 .chaos-engine/install.py addons --project .
Each line shows the add-on name, whether it is installed or available, its
flag, and when to use it. Add --json for scripts. On Windows, use py -3
instead of python3.
Installed add-ons live in .chaos-engine/addons/<name>/. The
shaft-core-developers add-on switches ChaosEngine to the SHAFT repository
profile instead of adding files there.
Upgrade and remove
- Run the same install command without flags to upgrade. Your add-ons stay.
- Pass
--without-<name>(or-Without<Name>) to remove one. - A misspelled name stops the install and lists the valid names.
- ChaosEngine refuses to remove an add-on that another chosen add-on needs.
For example,
shaft-engine-usersstays whileshaft-core-developersis installed.
:::note Change for SHAFT projects
Earlier versions picked the SHAFT contributor profile automatically when a
project's pom.xml mentioned SHAFT. That also happened in projects that only
use SHAFT. Now nothing is picked automatically: the installer prints a tip,
and you choose shaft-engine-users or shaft-core-developers. Installs that
already use the contributor profile keep it.
:::
What the design add-on gives your agent
The design-skills add-on is a short router plus 20 focused cards. Your agent
loads one card for the step it is on, and each card ends with checks it must
pass. The checks run in a script, design_qc.py, that uses no AI model. A check
whose tool is missing reports skipped, never pass.
| Area | Cards |
|---|---|
| Planning and brand | brief and storyboard, brand system |
| Web and type | visual direction, interface audit, typography and layout, color and contrast |
| Images | posters, link cards, thumbnails, and diagrams |
| Motion | motion principles, HTML motion graphics, technical animation |
| Video | screen capture, edit assembly, cutting and pacing, color grading |
| Audio | mix and loudness, noise removal, voice-over |
| Finishing | captions, restoration and upscaling, delivery QC |
Examples of objective checks: WCAG contrast ratios, caption line length and reading speed, −16 LUFS web loudness with a true peak of −1 dBTP or lower, BT.709 color tags and legal levels, flash rate, and encode settings.
The cards are written for ChaosEngine and credit their sources. Design rules
from openly licensed projects are rewritten with attribution, and every
source is pinned to a commit in the add-on's INVENTORY.md. Web work still
follows ChaosEngine's UI delivery rules: tests that fail first, measured
layout, and screenshots at five viewport sizes in every theme.