feat: Add PAI Development Kit - Meta-commands for system introspection

[nbost130]

Overview

This PR introduces a suite of meta-commands that enhance PAI's maintainability and development workflow by adding introspection and validation capabilities.

New Meta-Commands Added

🔍 pai-diagnostics.md

Command Structure Validator

• Analyzes individual command files for structural integrity
• Validates command types (instructional, executable, hybrid, shell)
• Checks shebang, JSDoc, and file permissions
• Provides actionable suggestions for fixes
• Supports verbose mode for detailed analysis

📊 pai-audit.md

System-Wide Command Audit

• Performs audit of all PAI commands
• Scans multiple command directories automatically
• Detects duplicate commands across locations
• Generates health scores and statistics
• Supports JSON output for automation integration

🏗️ pai-scaffold.md

Interactive Command Generator

• Creates properly structured commands following PAI patterns
• Supports all command types with correct boilerplate
• Quick mode for automated generation
• Generates proper shebang, JSDoc, and TypeScript structure
• Automatically sets file permissions

🔎 pai-index.md

Command Discovery & Intelligence System

• Dynamic Index Generation: Creates pai-index.json database with metadata extraction
• Multi-Directory Intelligence: Automatically scans PAI core commands, user commands, and dotfiles locations
• Metadata Analysis: Extracts purpose, description, usage patterns, dependencies, and tags from JSDoc/markdown
• Health Monitoring: Assessment of command structural integrity and compliance
• Search Engine: Full-text search across command names, descriptions, purposes, and tags
• Dependency Tracking: Parses and tracks import statements and external dependencies
• Statistics: Metrics by type, health, size, and modification patterns
• Maintenance Automation: --update mode for incremental index refreshing
• Integration Foundation: Structured JSON API enabling other tools to consume command intelligence
• Discovery Interface: --list and --search modes for command exploration
• Temporal Tracking: Monitors file modification times and tracks command evolution
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works across different PAI installation patterns

This creates a database of PAI's command ecosystem that enables automation, quality assurance, and intelligent command discovery.

🏥 pai-system-audit.md

Infrastructure Monitor

• Health monitoring of PAI ecosystem components
• Audits commands, hooks, agents, voice server, context system
• Real-time service status checking
• Provides system health score and actionable recommendations

📋 Documentation & Usage Requirements

New Documentation Added:

• pai-index-requirements.md: Guide for maximizing PAI Index benefits
• Documentation patterns for executable and instructional commands
• Metadata extraction rules and tagging best practices
• Examples and troubleshooting for optimal command discoverability

Key Documentation Features:

• JSDoc patterns for executable commands with Purpose, Description, Usage sections
• Markdown patterns for instructional commands
• Tagging system for categorization and search optimization
• Backward compatibility - works with any documentation level
• Gradual adoption - improve documentation over time

See PAI_DIRECTORY/documentation/pai-index-requirements.md for complete documentation requirements and examples.

Key Benefits

🛡️ Quality Assurance

• Automated validation prevents structural issues before they impact users
• Health scoring provides quality metrics
• Duplicate detection prevents command conflicts
• Documentation standards ensure consistent command quality

👨‍💻 Developer Experience

• Scaffolding tools ensure consistent patterns from the start
• Diagnostics help debug command issues quickly
• Intelligent discovery makes finding and understanding commands easier
• Command intelligence provides insights into PAI ecosystem structure
• Documentation templates via scaffolding ensure proper metadata

🔧 System Visibility

• Infrastructure awareness across PAI components
• Real-time monitoring of services and configuration
• Proactive issue detection before problems impact workflow
• Command ecosystem analytics for understanding usage patterns

🤖 Self-Improving System

• PAI can introspect itself and understand its own structure
• Automated maintenance capabilities for long-term system health
• Foundation for future automation and self-healing features
• Intelligence-driven development enabling smarter PAI evolution

Testing

All meta-commands have been tested with:

• ✅ Edge cases: Non-existent files, invalid types, permission issues
• ✅ Integration testing: Commands work together seamlessly
• ✅ Real-world validation: Tested against actual PAI command ecosystem
• ✅ Performance testing: All audits complete efficiently
• ✅ Error handling: Graceful degradation and clear error messages
• ✅ Search functionality: Full-text search tested across command metadata
• ✅ Maintenance workflows: Index update and regeneration cycles validated
• ✅ Documentation parsing: Metadata extraction tested across different documentation patterns

Documentation

• ✅ Updated command-system.md with meta-commands section
• ✅ Added pai-index-requirements.md with detailed documentation patterns and requirements
• ✅ Usage examples for all commands and modes
• ✅ Integration patterns showing how tools work together
• ✅ Best practices for using the development kit
• ✅ Troubleshooting guides for common issues

Zero Risk Implementation

• ✅ Additive only: No modifications to existing PAI functionality
• ✅ Optional tools: Users can ignore meta-commands entirely
• ✅ Self-contained: All tools work independently
• ✅ Backwards compatible: No breaking changes
• ✅ Non-intrusive: Index generation doesn't affect command execution
• ✅ Graceful degradation: Works with any documentation level

Future Foundation

These meta-commands establish the foundation for:

• Advanced PAI ecosystem management and automation
• Automated quality gates in CI/CD pipelines
• Self-healing system capabilities
• Community contribution tools and validation
• Intelligent command recommendation systems
• Advanced analytics and usage pattern analysis
• Documentation-driven development workflows

---

This PR transforms PAI into a self-aware system with command intelligence while maintaining full backwards compatibility and providing immediate value to users.

[danielmiessler]

I really love this, but I feel like it's kind of heavy and it might be intimidating to people. Anyone else have any comments?

[nbost130]

Would it make more sense to streamline by creating a single pai-system-audit.md with the various features included? Is the functionality "heavy" or just Claude's verbose description in the comment? I did ask him to tone it down a bit haha :) In practice it didn't seem heavy to use and sort of emerged organically as we were troubleshooting issues with command creation.

I decided to make it this more modular so it could be run more selectively but that isn't necessary. In my mind this this three features:

1) pai-system-audit.md - Reviews structure of commands, context, etc. for proper formatting and provides summary of results / items to address. Works nicely to identify deficiencies in documentation to help the ai improve.
2) pai-index.md - provides "living" context for the ai with quick reference data such as the purpose of various scripts, etc. with the goal being a lightweight .json based index that the ai can traverse easily to keep context low and avoid repeated shell command usage
3) pai-scaffold.md <<< weird name claude selected, upon further reflection this could be pai-command-template.md or something like that. The reason for this is we (Claude & I) had some trouble reproducing the exectuable bun .md files until we read a blog post that clarified the approach. Not sure why it was so troublesome, but creating this template helped with further command generation.

[Jamie-SA]

I really love this, but I feel like it's kind of heavy and it might be intimidating to people. Anyone else have any comments?

I appreciate seeing/learning from these changes.

I do think a lot of "intimidation" can be overcome with good introduction guides and HowTos, especially now that Kai/PAI should be able to do most of that type of work.

[robrodriguezjr]

I'm not a coder in any sense , but I love this project and it's philosophy (thanks Daniel!) and I've been able to implement it more or less as intended with lots of reading, watching Daniel's videos, and asking Claude to help! I think these changes would make it more complex, but also more capable. I do agree that clear how-to's and step by step guides would help immensely. I'm happy to help with that.

I'm all for maximizing and leveraging the amazing technology we have today (I'm 59), so I'm open to whatever I need to learn!

[danielmiessler]

We just made some major updates. Please review and resubmit if necessary.