nikos.tools
nikOS · Free · open source

Make sure faster development takes your company somewhere.

AI can build software faster. Your team still needs to agree on what to build—and why.

nikOS connects company strategy, objectives and team specifications in the repositories you already own. So leaders, product teams and coding agents can work from the same agreed direction.

  • No new hosted workspace to buy.
  • Open source.
  • Customizable.

Your strategy shouldn’t get lost on the way to delivery.

Then come the questions:

nikOS helps connect the answers—before your team spends time building the wrong thing.

A shared source of truth. Not just for engineering.

Your developers already use repositories: shared homes for code that keep a history of changes.

nikOS makes those repositories useful for the people deciding what the code should do, too.

Your published company strategy and objectives live in a company repository. Department and group plans connect to that direction. Teams keep their intent, stories and specifications in linked repositories alongside their code.

The repositories hold the record. nikOS gives it structure.

You can follow a piece of work back to the goal it supports, without moving everything into another platform—or one giant repository.

How the model fits together

  1. Plans at every level Your company, each department and each group keep a plan in their own repository. Each sets objectives, measures them with key results, and chooses bets: the work it thinks will move them.
  2. Linked, not copied Department plans plan against the company’s, and group plans against a department’s. A key result or bet can align to one in the level above, or stand alone.
  3. Groups turn bets into story maps Only groups make story maps: one for each bet they take on. Activities run across, releases run down, and the stories sit where they meet.
  4. Teams take a share A team is given a whole story map, or just some of its activities or releases. It keeps the intent, stories and specifications for that work in its own repository, alongside its code.
Example: one bet, from company plan to team
  1. Company plancompany repo
    Objective
    Customers choose us for paying together
    Key result
    Group checkouts: 12% → 25%
    Bet
    Shared payments everywhere
  2. Department plandepartment repo
    Plans against the company plan
    Objective
    Paying together feels effortless
    Key result
    Bill splits completed: 40% → 70% aligns ↑
    Bet
    Rebuild bill splitting aligns ↑
  3. Group plangroup repo
    Plans against a department plan
    Objective
    Nobody argues about the bill
    Key result
    Split disputes: 9% → 2% aligns ↑
    Bet
    Make splitting a bill effortless aligns ↑
  4. Story mapgroup repo
    Made by the group for its bet “Make splitting a bill effortless”
    Add the bill
    Split it
    Settle up
    Release 1
    Enter the total
    Split evenly
    Mark as paid
    Release 2
    Scan a receipt
    Split by amount
    Pay by link

    Payments team takes the whole story map.

Give agents a clearer brief. Give people a clearer agreement.

“Improve checkout” isn’t enough to build from.

nikOS helps you turn an idea into specific behaviour and examples your team can inspect and your coding agents can work from.

For example, a team building bill splitting could agree what happens when three people pay different amounts, someone leaves early, or the total needs rounding.

Those examples become executable acceptance checks: tests of whether the software behaves as agreed.

  • In nikOS’s completion workflow, unfinished test steps block a story from being marked done.
  • Human approval remains separate.
  • Change the specification afterwards, and its previous approval no longer holds.

Less room for “that’s not what I meant.” A clearer basis for reviewing what gets built.

Feature: Split a bill
Scenario: Three people pay different amounts
Given a £90 bill shared by Ana, Ben and Cai
When Ana pays £50 and Ben pays £40
Then Cai owes £30, and Ana is owed £20 and Ben £10
Scenario: Someone leaves early
Given Ben leaves before dessert
When a £12 dessert is added
Then it is split between Ana and Cai only
Scenario: The total needs rounding
Given a £10 bill split three ways
Then two people owe £3.33 and one owes £3.34
An example agreement. Each scenario runs as a test.

Understand what’s happening—and how current the picture is.

The browser dashboard brings together goals, owners, delivery counts, next work, recorded blockers and decisions.

  • Goals
  • Owners
  • Delivery counts
  • Next work
  • Recorded blockers
  • Decisions

Leaders can see how team work connects to published plans. Product managers can explain priorities in context. Teams can see what comes next.

How currentSync dates and version references show which repository updates the view reflects. Linked plans need syncing; this isn’t an automatically live picture of the whole company.

Shipped isn’t achievedAnd completing a story doesn’t automatically increase an objective’s progress. Shipping the feature and achieving the business result remain separate questions.

Start small. Keep what already works.

Try nikOS with one team and one real piece of work:

  1. Connect the work to a meaningful goal.
  2. Agree on the intended behaviour before implementation.
  3. Give your coding agent the specification.
  4. Review the implementation against the acceptance evidence.

Keep your existing tracker where it helps. Start without purchasing another hosted platform. Adapt the open-source tool to your way of working.

Expand when it earns its place.

A few things worth knowing

Do I need to be technical?

You don’t need to write code to help define goals and expected behaviour. Setup and maintaining repository files currently need a developer or AI coding assistant. The dashboard runs locally in a browser, with a read-only offline export available.

Does this replace Jira?

It doesn’t have to. Jira can track execution while your repositories hold the agreed plans and specifications. Decide how the two fit together; don’t expect automatic two-way synchronization.

Does nikOS build the software?

No. It structures the instructions and acceptance checks. Your developers and coding agents build the product; people still review it.

Is it ready for every department?

Start with a software product team comfortable using repositories. Provider-verified approvals and organized meeting-note and research tooling aren’t available yet. Existing repository permissions still matter, and normal company security reviews still apply.

Give your next feature a clear purpose—and a clear definition of done.

Open source. Your repositories. Start with one team.

Start with nikOS
$ npx nikos start
Get started on GitHub