Documentation

x-Arbiter is an AI governance framework for Claude Code. It enforces rules at write time, runs quality reviews across seven specialist lens families, and maintains institutional memory across every session.

Installation

x-Arbiter has not been published to npm yet, so there is no install command to run. The commands are deliberately not shown here — a command that fails is worse than no command. This section documents what installation will look like, and the exact commands will appear at release.

Installation will run an initialiser inside any project directory. It installs the enforcement hooks, the lens knowledge base, and the institutional memory structure into `.claude/`, and it never overwrites your project files — `arbiter.config.json`, `memory/`, and `CLAUDE.md` are always preserved.

Flags will include `--force` to overwrite existing framework files and `--yes` to skip confirmation in CI.

Onboarding wizard

After installation, run the onboarding wizard to configure your project identity, design system, and governance layers. This writes your `arbiter.config.json`.

node .claude/arbiter.js onboard

Connecting to x-Arbiter Cloud

Create a project at x-arbiter.com, copy the API key from the project settings page, and add it to your `.claude/settings.local.json`:

{
  "cloud": {
    "apiKey": "arb_your_key_here",
    "projectId": "your-project-uuid",
    "endpoint": "https://x-arbiter.com/api/ingest"
  }
}

Governance events, session handoffs, and lens findings will start streaming to your dashboard automatically. No other configuration needed.

How the hooks work

x-Arbiter installs a set of hooks into `.claude/hooks/` that Claude Code fires automatically. The ones you will notice most:

·session-start — restores institutional memory at conversation start
·compliance-inject — injects Quick Rules from your layer CLAUDE.md files
·governance-check — pattern-matches every file write against violation signals
·lens-suggest — prompts a specialist lens review at natural checkpoints
·stop-check — fires doc-update reminders when framework files change
·session-restore — re-injects memory after context compression

The seven-family lens review

The lens review evaluates work across seven disciplinary families:

·Experience (E) — UX, agent experience, human-centred design, accessibility, behavioural economics, neuroscience, internationalisation
·Code (C) — TypeScript, reusability, performance, security, SEO, architecture, testing, observability, supply chain, data governance, API design
·Business (B) — market positioning, competitive strategy, unit economics, conversion, growth, risk and compliance, marketing narrative
·Dark patterns (D) — manufactured urgency, misdirection, friction asymmetry, forced continuity, attention ethics
·Governance (G) — audit trail, change control, SSP readiness, continuous monitoring, agent authorization
·AI safety (A) — prompt injection, output validation, model transparency, fairness and bias, explainability, evaluation coverage
·Knowledge (K) — documentation quality, AI context files, onboarding runbooks

Findings are graded A–D. Run a lens review manually with the `/lens` slash command, or let the `lens-suggest` hook trigger it automatically.

arbiter.config.json

The config file defines your project identity and the governance layers x-Arbiter enforces. Each layer maps a set of patterns to a CLAUDE.md file of Quick Rules.

{
  "agent": "claude",
  "designSystem": "shadcn",
  "project": {
    "name": "my-app",
    "description": "What this project does"
  },
  "layers": [
    {
      "name": "UI Components",
      "claudeMd": "components/CLAUDE.md",
      "patterns": ["components/", "\\bbutton\\b"]
    }
  ]
}