ASE turns Claude Code into a structured engineering workflow

Agentic Software Engineering (ASE) is now publicly available. ASE is an Apache-2.0 open-source toolkit by Dr. Ralf S.

Engelschall, built to run as a plugin for Anthropic’s Claude Code CLI. Its goal is to connect AI coding with normal software engineering habits, so an agent does more than quickly produce code. The toolkit includes agent hooks, configurable agent skills, a Model-Context-Protocol (MCP) service, and a companion command-line tool.

Its scope covers idea generation, web search, asking other LLMs, comparing answers, finding components, weighing options, checking claims, finding root causes, managing tasks, reviewing plans, analyzing code, fixing code, refactoring code, writing new code, reviewing changes, and creating changelog entries. The wider reaction around similar tools points to the same pattern: coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and Cursor can save time, but loose use can also create weaker code, bigger-than-planned work, and repeated explanation of the same project context. Related local tools for shared MCP memory and outcome-based feedback loops show a growing push to make coding agents more disciplined and reusable, not just faster.