Adding Capabilities

Using verikt add

The simplest way to add capabilities to an existing project:

verikt add redis

1. Validates the capability exists and checks for conflicts
2. Auto-resolves transitive dependencies
3. Renders new files (skipping any that already exist)
4. Updates your verikt.yaml
5. Regenerates AI agent context via verikt guide

Adding Multiple Capabilities

verikt add kafka-consumer observability redis

Transitive Dependencies

Some capabilities require others. verikt resolves these automatically:

verikt add bff
# Output:
# Adding capabilities:
#   + http-api (auto-dependency)
#   + bff

Conflict Detection

If a capability conflicts with one already installed, verikt will stop and tell you:

verikt add grpc
# Error: capability "grpc" conflicts with "http-api"

Tip

Use verikt check after adding capabilities to verify your project still passes all architecture rules.

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At Scaffold Time

You can also include capabilities when creating a new project:

verikt new my-service \
  --language go \
  --arch hexagonal \
  --cap platform,bootstrap,http-api,mysql,redis,docker

Or use the interactive wizard to explore all capabilities with descriptions and smart suggestions:

verikt new my-service --language go

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Understanding Capability Structure

Each capability provides:

1. Template files — Source files rendered into your project
2. Partials — Code snippets that wire into bootstrap.go
3. Config fields — Struct fields added to config/config.go
4. Manifest — Metadata about requirements, suggestions, and conflicts

Example: What mysql Provides

capabilities/mysql/
├── capability.yaml              # name, requires, suggests, conflicts
├── files/
│   └── adapter/mysqlrepo/
│       └── connection.go.tmpl   # Connection pooling setup
└── _partials/
    ├── main_imports.go.tmpl     # import "github.com/org/svc/adapter/mysqlrepo"
    ├── main_init.go.tmpl        # db, err := mysqlrepo.NewConnection(...)
    └── main_shutdown.go.tmpl    # app.OnShutdown("mysql", ...)

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Checking Compatibility

Before adding a capability, check its capability.yaml for:

• requires — Other capabilities that must be present (auto-resolved by verikt add)
• suggests — Recommended companions
• conflicts — Capabilities that can’t coexist

# Example: auth-jwt requires http-api
name: auth-jwt
requires:
  - http-api
suggests: []
conflicts: []

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Manual Addition

If you prefer to add capabilities by hand:

1. Add the source files

   Look at the capability’s files/ directory for what to create. For example, adding Redis means creating adapter/redisrepo/connection.go.

2. Update config

   Add the capability’s config struct and fields to config/config.go:

   type RedisConfig struct {
       Addr     string `yaml:"addr"`
       Password string `yaml:"password"`
       DB       int    `yaml:"db"`
   }

3. Wire into bootstrap

   Add initialization and shutdown code to internal/bootstrap/bootstrap.go.

4. Update verikt.yaml

   Add the capability to your project’s capability list:

   capabilities:
     - platform
     - bootstrap
     - http-api
     - mysql
     - redis  # Added

5. Regenerate guide

   verikt guide --target claude

Note

verikt add does all of these steps automatically. Manual addition is useful when you need custom wiring or want to understand the internals.