N.°03 — Arch Studio
Arch Studio
A terminal-first agentic studio for architecture practice — harness, memory, skills, and connectors.
- Agent harness
- Claude Code
- MIT
- Open source
02 What it is
Install it and gain the foundation of an agentic architecture studio — not a pile of parts.
Arch Studio is a terminal-first agent harness and institutional-memory system for architecture firms. Instead of assembling a generic coding harness, tools, skills, MCP servers, permissions, and project context from scratch, a capable user installs Arch Studio and immediately works inside an architecture-aware agent environment. It began as a collection of agents and skills for Claude Code — that catalog now ships as one plugin, and the standalone harness is in development.
03 The harness
An opinionated operating system for architectural practice.
The dedicated Arch Studio harness runs in the terminal and pairs an architecture-aware primary agent with durable, local-first studio memory. Every consequential action — enabling a skill, admitting a note, invoking a remote tool — is approval-gated.
i.
Studio memory
A user-owned local workspace holds conversations, connectors, skills, and project registrations. Projects live anywhere and are attached, not copied — PROJECT.md holds the facts, decisions/ holds the reasoning, and approved notes become durable project memory.
ii.
Architecture-aware agent
A primary agent with architecture-specific workflows that coordinates skills and tools at the right time — document inspection with cited findings, approval-gated notes, and evidence that stays traceable to its source.
iii.
Firm-authored skills
Scaffold standard skill packages in your own workspace. New packages stay drafts until explicitly enabled; enabled skills are advertised to the agent by name and loaded only when needed.
iv.
Governed MCP connectors
Add your own MCP connectors, inspect the remote tool catalog, choose an explicit allowlist, then enable. Every remote invocation requires approval and carries provenance — connector, server, trust level, and tool name.
04 Available today
The catalog is live inside Claude Code.
While the harness is in development, Arch Studio ships today as a single Claude Code plugin — one install brings all 46 skills and 7 agents. No API keys, no configuration.
i.
Agents
Domain specialists that orchestrate multiple skills end to end. An FF&E Designer researches products, builds schedules, and manages procurement. A Sustainability Specialist pulls EPDs, calculates embodied carbon, and checks certifications.
ii.
Skills
Single-purpose commands. /as:product-research modern task chair under $1500 searches product sources and writes structured options. /zoning-analysis 123 Main St pulls FAR, setbacks, and use groups for a parcel.
iii.
Learn
A guided course in the terminal. /as:learn teaches architects Claude Code itself — six hands-on modules on a fictional Brooklyn art museum project, each named for the lesson it teaches, resumable anytime.
iv.
Project memory
Every project keeps a dossier — PROJECT.md holds the facts (site, zoning, program, code), decisions/ holds the reasoning as numbered decision records. Plain files in the project folder, shared however the project already is.
05 Built for
01
Interior designers
FF&E sourcing, spec writing, procurement — surfaced as slash commands inside the studio.
02
Architects
Zoning analysis, envelope, code-check, programming. The repetitive work that eats time before design begins.
03
Sustainability specialists
EPDs, embodied carbon, certification logic. Pulled, parsed, compared, written into the spec.
04
Small studios
An agentic teammate with the firm's memory. Install once, the whole studio benefits.
06 By the numbers
283
Stars on GitHub
58
Forks
9
Releases — open-sourced March 2026, now at v1.4.0
0
API keys, configuration, paid tiers — install and run
07 Get started
Three steps. Nothing to compile.
If you have Claude Code, you're 30 seconds away. The plugin marketplace handles installation, updates, and removal — and it's the fastest way to work with Arch Studio while the standalone harness is in development.
Step 01
Install Claude Code
If you don't have it yet. claude.com/code — desktop or CLI, both work.
Step 02
Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add AlpacaLabsLLC/skills-for-architects inside Claude Code.
Step 03
Install the plugin
claude plugin install as@skills-for-architects — one install, every skill and agent wired automatically.
08 Inside · the catalog
Browse what ships with the studio.
Every agent, every skill, every plugin — listed, linked, and searchable. Source on GitHub, MIT-licensed, contributions welcome.
i.
Agents
Domain specialists who orchestrate skills to finish work end to end.
ii.
Skills
Single-purpose commands. Predictable inputs, predictable outputs, composable.
iii.
One plugin
Install architecture-studio once, get everything. The workflow-stage groups live on as documentation.
iv.
Docs
Installation, usage, and the architecture behind the agents.
Install the studio.
Free, open source, MIT-licensed. Built for the desk you already work at.
Install guide → →