oah helps you build an AI development workflow that fits you and keeps changing as AI improves. It is a working reference and a guide you can adapt.
A useful result needs more than generated code: the scope must be clear, the changes checked, and decisions kept for the next session. oah connects those steps so one request can carry through the work with a record of what happened.
002 / Why it keeps changing
Older rules and skills can hold a newer model back or make its results worse. Defaults should be easy to understand and change; a rule that gets in your way is a design problem to fix.
Keep the parts that help, remove what no longer helps, and revise the workflow as your tools improve. You can start with the full setup or take only the impact map, wiki, leases, evidence gates or review loop that your project needs.
003 / Why Claude builds and Codex reviews
This split comes from the author's own experience, not a measured comparison: Claude fills in details a beginner might miss in a first version; Codex checks and corrects within a fixed scope.
The current commands run Claude Code and Codex CLI. The ideas can also be adapted to another tool or harness, with one AI or several. Give each stage to the AI that suits your work.
004 / From one request to a checked change
Describe the result you want in plain language. The AI records the goal and scope, checks what the change touches, reserves its paths and chooses the tools for the task. Claude builds; Codex reviews, corrects and reviews again.
Gates record the checks and their results. The project wiki keeps the decisions and reasons beside the code. In v0.3.0, optional TypeSafe Jev can judge difficulty for model selection; rules remain the fallback when it is unavailable or uncertain.
005 / The decisions stay with you
You ask, answer when the AI needs a decision, and confirm before the change lands. If the same problem repeats or the work reaches a design choice, the loop stops to ask you.
Ask “Is the review done?” or “Did all the gates pass?” and inspect the evidence. The final confirmation belongs to you; writing code, checking it and approving its landing are separate steps.
006 / Free, open source, yours to adapt
oah is free, open-source software under the MIT license. Read the source, change it and bring the useful pieces into your own workflow. Your AI services and any optional services use their own accounts and billing.
The current v0.3.0 release supports macOS and native Windows, and expects familiarity with git and pull requests. Install it, run oah init in your project, then try the small hello-oah example. The installation and documentation sections explain each step.
New in v0.3.0: a new model generation joins once it has a score, and superseded or removed models drop out, with no file edited. Each change shows a plain notice and stays in the run record. A new generation without a score waits while the older one stays, so a model family never goes empty.
When you need it
Every new model release would otherwise mean editing config files by hand, and forgetting means working on an outdated model.
How it works
A model competes when the CLI lists it and does not hide it, its family is known, it has every common task, it is the newest generation of its family with those tasks, and allowed_models permits it.
A newer generation of a known family is used from the next catalog rebuild once it has a score; a superseded or vanished model stops being chosen at that same rebuild.
OAH_MODEL_CHANGED says once what moved and why, such as a newer generation or new scores, and changes.jsonl keeps it.
A free alias check, which cannot be billed, confirms Claude aliases such as haiku that claude --help leaves out.
Example
Reread the engines' model lists now (from Upgrade).
oah models --refresh
Requirements
Requires v0.3.0 or later.
Current Claude Code and Codex CLI; newer models reach you only when the tools themselves are current.
Limits and recovery
A new model waits for a published score, which can take days or weeks (OAH_MODEL_UNSCORED).
A family oah does not know is never chosen automatically (OAH_MODEL_UNKNOWN_FAMILY).
A model you name yourself skips these tests; an older generation you name runs with OAH_MODEL_SUPERSEDED.
The alias check relies on an undocumented tag; if it changes, haiku drops out and sonnet serves instead until oah is updated.
A Codex pin that a fresh catalog no longer lists stops with OAH_MODEL_NOT_LISTED.