ken-help

Quick reference for ken modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display.

Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot, do NOT change mode, write flag files, or persist anything.

Levels

Level	Trigger	What changes
Lite	/ken lite	Build what's asked, name the Thompson move (the rewrite, the brute-force cut) in one line.
Full	/ken	The loop enforced: think first → steal → bottom-up → brute force → try it → throw it out. Default.
Ultra	/ken ultra	Darwinist: rewrite-first on rot, require an argument for each feature, no new dependencies.

Level sticks until changed or session end.

Skills

Skill	Trigger	What it does
ken	/ken	Thompson mode itself. Think, steal, build bottom-up, brute force, rewrite.
ken-review	/ken-review	Method review: L42: rot: third patch on this unit. Rewrite, ~25 lines.
ken-audit	/ken-audit	Whole-repo method audit: ranked list of what to rewrite or remove.
ken-debt	/ken-debt	Harvest ken: ceiling comments into a tracked ledger.
ken-gain	/ken-gain	Measured-impact scoreboard from ken's own benchmark results.
ken-help	/ken-help	This card.

Codex uses @ken, @ken-review, and @ken-help; Claude Code and OpenCode use the slash-command forms above (OpenCode ships all six as slash commands).

Deactivate

Say "stop ken" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with /ken. /ken off also works.

Configure Default Mode

Default mode = full, auto-active every session. Change it:

Environment variable (highest priority):

bash

export KEN_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra

Config file (~/.config/ken/config.json, Windows: %APPDATA%\ken\config.json):

json

{ "defaultMode": "lite" }

Set "off" to disable auto-activation on session start. Use /ken to activate it when wanted.

Resolution: env var > config file > full.

Update

Enable auto-update once: open /plugin, go to Marketplaces, pick ken, Enable auto-update. Claude Code then pulls new versions at startup (run /reload-plugins when it prompts). Manual refresh: /plugin marketplace update ken then /reload-plugins.

If /plugin is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date. Update it (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest, or brew upgrade claude-code) and restart. Other hosts use their own update flow.

More

Full docs + provenance for every rule: the ken repo's README.md and PROVENANCE.md.