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FAQ

Answers to frequently asked questions about Pipemason.

What is Pipemason?

Pipemason is a Claude-powered development pipeline. You hand it a feature description — plain text, a Jira ticket, or a Figma URL — and a chain of specialized agents (analyst, contracts architect, per-domain architects, TDD agents, leads, and verify-phase testers) carries the work end-to-end: from spec, to tests, to implementation, to a pushed branch and an optional pull request. It works at two scales: a single story (pipemason start, one feature to one branch to one PR) and a multi-story program (pipemason program start, an entire system decomposed into a dependency graph of stories).

How is my code kept private?

The runner executes locally on your machine. Your source code never leaves it. Only run metadata, logs, and artifacts you opt into (screenshots, diffs) stream to the cloud so you can watch a run live. See the Security & privacy page for the full data-flow model and credential handling.

What does it cost?

  • Free — $0: 1 repo, 10 runs per calendar month.
  • Solo — $19/mo: 5 repos, unlimited runs, full history and replay.
  • Team — $49/seat/mo: unlimited seats and repos, audit log, integrations.
  • Enterprise — custom; contact sales@pipemason.com.

Every paid plan includes a 14-day trial (card on file, no charge until day 15). You can cancel anytime from Dashboard → Billing, which opens the Stripe Customer Portal.

What platforms, domains, and modes are supported?

The runner ships as a code-signed, notarized binary for macOS (arm64 and x64), Linux (x64 and arm64), and Windows (x64).

Each domain is built by a quartet of architect, TDD, lead, and tech-lead agents. App and service domains are api, mobile, web, db, and cloud. Game domains include game-mobile, game-rn, game-windows, game-mac, game-xr, and game-console.

Program modes are:

  • greenfield-system — a multi-domain SaaS or platform from scratch.
  • greenfield-mobile — a net-new mobile or game app plus a minimum-viable backend.
  • brownfield-upgrade — read an existing system, then plan and execute multi-story changes (with feature-flag, dual-write, and cutover discipline).
  • brownfield-extension — add a new capability to an existing system without rewriting it.

Do I need GitHub?

No. Connecting GitHub lets Pipemason list your repos during onboarding and push or open PRs against private repos without you managing tokens locally. If you push over SSH and do not want Pipemason creating PRs, you can skip it — the runner falls back to your existing local git auth.

How long does a run take?

A run typically takes 5–30 minutes, depending on the scope of the feature or program. Watch it live at pipemason.com/dashboard.

How do I stop or resume a run?

Use the CLI from inside the repo:

pipemason status     # show the current .pipeline/STATE.md
pipemason resume     # continue a run after fixing an escalation
pipemason cancel     # stop the current run

What happens on an escalation?

The monitor escalates rather than guessing whenever it hits something ambiguous it cannot safely resolve — a rebase conflict, a gate failure it cannot recover from, or a contract disagreement between domains. The run pauses and waits for you.

Note

Open .pipeline/STATE.md: the escalation block tells you exactly what is needed. Fix the underlying issue, then run pipemason resume to continue from where it stopped.

Still stuck?

Check Troubleshooting and Error & status codes, or email support@pipemason.com.