Kaizen CLI is an architecture-driven modernization tool. It decomposes legacy codebases
into editable Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) and recomposes them to modern stacks,
with an audit trail by default.
Key workflows:
- kaizen memsafe-roadmap: C/C++ to Rust migration with CISA-format memory-safety roadmaps
- kaizen migrate-plan: Framework modernization (AngularJS, .NET Framework, Java 8, etc.)
Requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.
README
Kaizen
Architecture-driven modernization. Audit trail ships by default. Decompose legacy codebases into editable ADRs, recompose to modern stacks — compliance falls out of doing the architecture right, not bolted on after.
Install
Method
Command
winget (Windows)
winget install Kaizen3C.KaizenCLI
npm
npm install -g kaizen-3c-cli
Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew tap Kaizen-3C/tap && brew install kaizen-cli
pipx (Python, recommended)
pipx install kaizen-3c-cli
uv
uv tool install kaizen-3c-cli
pip
pip install kaizen-3c-cli
winget, npm, and Homebrew install a standalone binary (no Python required). pipx/uv/pip install the full package including [web] and [mcp] extras.
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=... # or OPENAI_API_KEY, or a local Ollama host
kaizen memsafe-roadmap ./my-c-lib --output roadmap.md
Nancy — NancyContext.cs .NET Fx → .NET 8, 148 LOC (dotnet build)
14 errors
0 errors
0 errors
Methodology: three-arm ablation (one-shot control, plain ADR pipeline, ADR + domain schema) on real OSS repos. Exact commands, prompts, and raw outputs in each case-study directory.
What it isn't
Kaizen is not a code-generation tool. The ADR is the product; the LLM is the tool that produces it. An ADR is an editable, auditable record of an architectural decision — the thing a compliance officer signs off on, the thing a reviewer pushes back on, the thing that survives when the model changes next quarter. Recompose is the CI check that the ADR actually predicts working code.
The two wedges
kaizen memsafe-roadmap — C/C++ → Rust. Produces a CISA-format memory-safety roadmap + per-module ADR stubs. Optionally recomposes to a Rust port.
kaizen migrate-plan --from X --to Y — framework modernization (9 pairs: AngularJS → Angular/React, jQuery → React, .NET Framework → .NET 8/9, Python 2 → 3, Java 8 → 17/21, Spring 4 → Spring Boot 3).
Apache-2.0 for the CLI, pipeline, and provider adapters — cli/, cli/pipeline/, agents/src/providers/. Free forever. Installable via pip install kaizen-3c-cli.
Kaizen Enterprise Commercial for the enterprise wrapper — multi-tenancy, RBAC, SSO, MFA, audit-log export, approval workflows, cost attribution UI, budget caps. Lives under interface/ and is priced in docs/commercial/PRICING.md.
The open-core boundary is explicit and enumerated in ADR-0053. No pipeline capability is paywalled — the commercial tier wraps infrastructure, not pipeline. Validated in docs/CLI_VS_UI_CAPABILITY_REVIEW.md.
Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. All Apache-2.0 inbound; Commercial-tier work happens in the private dev repo, not via public PRs. Code of Conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
Security
To report a vulnerability, follow SECURITY.md. Do not open a public issue for security-related findings.
For contributors — internals
Architecture
Kaizen uses a four-tier architecture with a multi-agent denoising convergence loop. The CLI + pipeline (top-left in the diagram) is the Apache-2.0 surface; the ASP.NET + React UI is the Commercial wrapper.
The five agents (Researcher, Red Team, Draft, Write, Evaluator) iterate over the decomposition output. Each round produces grounded confidence scores (test pass rate, static analysis, coverage); the orchestrator gates completion via a Thompson-sampling convergence decision (see ADR-0052).
Developer setup
See quickstart.md for environment prerequisites, Docker Compose setup for the full stack, and first-run instructions. For CLI-only development, pip install -e . at the repo root is enough.
