Less surface.
More shipping.

Claude KISS is a second launcher for Claude Code. Questions stay questions. Fixes stay focused. Extra tools stay opt-in. Your normal claude command remains untouched.

Install curl -fsSL https://claude-kiss.com/install.sh | sh

Then run claude-kiss. Requires Claude Code. No sudo. No wrapper telemetry. No auto-update. Download and read install.sh first if you prefer.

Why

Fewer product surfaces. More developer intent.

Recent Claude Code discussions keep describing the same pattern: a capable coding model whose defaults turn one clear request into a project tour.

KISS is the smallest complete robust solution—not minimal effort, a stub, or a special case that passes one visible test.

What people keep running into, and what this launcher changes.
“It edited files when I asked a question.”	Questions are questions. Edit only when asked.
“A small fix became a refactor.”	Deliver the requested scope and preserve unrelated work.
“It rewrote comments nobody mentioned.”	Preserve comment density and avoid unrequested reports.
“It over-engineered everything.”	Choose the simplest complete robust solution.
“Concise meant lazy.”	No stubs, hardcodes, swallowed errors, or production shortcuts.
“Extra tools ate the budget.”	Six core tools by default; opt in to the rest.
“MCP discovered more than expected.”	Strict mode, with no unrelated discovery.
“Compaction forgot the objective.”	An editable handoff keeps objective and validation state.
“Defaults changed under me.”	Own the files and inspect every effective choice.

Defaults

What changes only when you launch `claude-kiss`.
System prompt	Concise builder-first replacement
Core tools	`Bash`, `Glob`, `Grep`, `Read`, `Edit`, `Write`
MCP	Strict mode; explicit configuration required
Bundled extras	Skills, workflows, artifacts, connectors, agent view, and remote control disabled
Nonessential traffic	Supported telemetry, survey, error-reporting, marketplace, and auto-update opt-outs enabled
Compaction	Tuned, plain, early, manual, or off
Ordinary Claude	Untouched

Need more surface? Bring it explicitly:

CLAUDE_KISS_TOOLS=default claude-kiss
CLAUDE_KISS_MCP=1 claude-kiss
claude-kiss --mcp-config ./mcp.json

Own it

Run claude-kiss init once. Three plain files become yours.

~/.config/claude-kiss/
  prompt.md
  settings.json
  memory/CLAUDE.md

Installer updates replace managed defaults only. They never merge, migrate, or overwrite your files.

Inspect it

Every launch is visible before it happens:

CLAUDE_KISS_DRY_RUN=1 claude-kiss
claude-kiss doctor

doctor reports the effective prompt, settings, tools, compaction mode, memory source, and required Claude Code capabilities.

Limits

Claude KISS is not a sandbox. Bash remains powerful. Tool defaults reduce attention surface; they do not replace permission review, testing, or security judgment.

Evidence

The repository includes a paired evaluator for identical isolated tasks. In one four-task smoke run, both launchers passed 4/4; KISS averaged 56.6% fewer result words and 61.0% lower reported cost. That is evidence to inspect, not a magic claim.

Read the evaluation

Less surface.More shipping.