Germinator

A configuration adapter that transforms AI coding assistant documents (commands, memory, skills, agents) between platforms. It uses a canonical Germinator YAML format as the source and adapts it to target platforms (Claude Code, OpenCode).

Overview

Germinator enables users who test different AI coding assistants regularly to:

• Maintain one source of truth for their coding assistant setup
• Quickly switch platforms without rewriting their configuration
• Adapt their setup to new projects easily

Installation

Quick Install

The easiest way to install germinator:

curl -sSL https://gitlab.com/amoconst/germinator/-/raw/main/install.sh | bash

From Source

go build -o germinator ./cmd

Manual Installation

See INSTALL.md for detailed installation instructions for Linux, macOS, and Windows, including checksum verification and GPG signature verification.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.5 or later

Usage

./germinator --help

Commands

Germinator provides two main commands:

• validate - Validate a Germinator source document
• adapt - Transform a Germinator source document to a target platform

Important: The --platform flag is required for both commands. Specify either claude-code or opencode.

Examples

# Validate a Germinator source document
./germinator validate path/to/document.yaml --platform claude-code

# Adapt an agent for Claude Code
./germinator adapt agent.yaml .claude/agents/my-agent.yaml --platform claude-code

# Adapt a skill for OpenCode
./germinator adapt skill.yaml .opencode/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md --platform opencode

# Adapt memory to AGENTS.md
./germinator adapt memory.yaml AGENTS.md --platform opencode

Supported Platforms

Germinator supports transformation to the following platforms:

Claude Code

• Agents: .claude/agents/<name>.yaml
• Commands: .claude/commands/<name>.md
• Skills: .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md
• Memory: .claude/memory/<name>.md

OpenCode

• Agents: .opencode/agents/<name>.yaml
• Commands: .opencode/commands/<name>.md
• Skills: .opencode/skills/<name>/SKILL.md
• Memory: AGENTS.md (memory documents are merged into project-level instructions)

Document Types

Germinator supports four types of AI coding assistant documents:

Type	Description
Agents	Specialized AI agents with capabilities, tools, and selection criteria
Commands	CLI commands with tool references, templates, and execution rules
Memory	Project context and guidelines for AI assistants
Skills	Specialized skills and techniques with metadata and hooks

Germinator Source Format

The Germinator YAML format is the canonical source containing ALL fields for ALL platforms. Source files include both Claude Code and OpenCode specific fields, enabling unidirectional transformation to either platform.

Example Agent Source

name: my-agent
description: A specialized agent for code review
model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514
permissionMode: acceptEdits  # Claude Code field
mode: strict                  # OpenCode field
temperature: 0.7
tools:
  - bash
  - edit
  - read
prompt: You are a code review agent.

Example Skill Source

name: git-workflow
description: Git workflow management
context: fork
allowed-tools:
  - bash
compatibility:
  - claude-code
  - opencode

Field Mappings

Agent

Germinator Field	Claude Code	OpenCode
name	✓	⚠ omitted (uses filename as identifier)
description	✓	✓
model	✓	✓ (full provider-prefixed ID)
tools	✓	✓ (converted to lowercase)
disallowedTools	✓	✓ (converted to lowercase, set false)
permissionMode	✓	→ Permission object (nested with ask/allow/deny)
skills	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
mode	-	✓ (primary/subagent/all, defaults to all)
temperature	-	✓ (*float64 pointer, omits when nil)
maxSteps	-	✓
hidden	-	✓ (omits when false)
prompt	-	✓
disable	-	✓ (omits when false)

Command

Germinator Field	Claude Code	OpenCode
name	✓	✓
description	✓	✓
allowed-tools	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
disallowed-tools	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
subtask	✓	✓
argument-hint	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
context	✓ (fork)	✓ (fork)
agent	✓	✓
model	✓	✓ (full provider-prefixed ID)
disable-model-invocation	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)

Skill

Germinator Field	Claude Code	OpenCode
name	✓	✓
description	✓	✓
allowed-tools	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
disallowed-tools	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)
license	✓	✓
compatibility	✓	✓
metadata	✓	✓
hooks	✓	✓
model	✓	✓ (full provider-prefixed ID)
context	✓ (fork)	✓ (fork)
agent	✓	✓
user-invocable	✓	⚠ (skipped - not supported)

Memory

Germinator Field	Claude Code	OpenCode
paths	✓	→ @ file references (one per line)
content	✓	→ Narrative context (rendered as-is)

Known Limitations

Permission Mode Transformation

The transformation from Claude Code's permissionMode enum to OpenCode's permission object is a basic approximation:

• default → {edit: {"*": "ask"}, bash: {"*": "ask"}}
• acceptEdits → {edit: {"*": "allow"}, bash: {"*": "ask"}}
• dontAsk → {edit: {"*": "allow"}, bash: {"*": "allow"}}
• bypassPermissions → {edit: {"*": "allow"}, bash: {"*": "allow"}}
• plan → {edit: {"*": "deny"}, bash: {"*": "deny"}}
• Only edit and bash tools are mapped (7+ other OpenCode permissionable tools remain undefined)
• Command-level permission rules are not supported

Skipped Fields

The following fields are not supported in OpenCode and are silently skipped:

• Agent: skills
• Command: disableModelInvocation, argumentHint, allowedTools, disallowedTools
• Skill: userInvocable, allowedTools, disallowedTools

DisallowedTools Forward Compatibility

OpenCode does not support disallowedTools in agents. Fields are included for forward compatibility but not used in current transformations.

Unidirectional Transformation

Transformation is one-way: Germinator format → target platform only. There is no support for bidirectional conversion.

Breaking Changes and Migration

Germinator Source Format (v0.4.0+)

Breaking Change: Germinator now uses its own canonical YAML format as the source. Existing Claude Code YAML files are incompatible.

Migration Guide:

1. Create new Germinator source files with platform-agnostic field names
2. Include both Claude Code and OpenCode specific fields in the source
3. Use --platform flag to specify target platform

Example Migration:

# Old Claude Code format (incompatible)
name: my-agent
description: My agent
permissionMode: default

# New Germinator format
name: my-agent
description: My agent
permissionMode: default  # Claude Code field
mode: strict             # OpenCode field
model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514

--platform Flag Requirement (v0.4.0+)

Breaking Change: The --platform flag is now required for all CLI operations. No default to claude-code.

Migration: Update all scripts and commands to include --platform claude-code or --platform opencode.

Validate() Signature Change (v0.4.0+)

Breaking Change: Validate() methods now require a platform string parameter.

Migration: Update custom parsers or validation code to pass the platform parameter:

// Before
errs := agent.Validate()

// After
errs := agent.Validate("claude-code")

Field Name Changes

• No field name changes in this release
• Field casing uses Go conventions (PascalCase) for compatibility

License

[Add your license here]