CocoPlus is a productivity plugin for Snowflake Cortex Code CLI (Coco). It turns Coco from a capable AI assistant into a structured, intelligent development partner — one that remembers, specializes, protects, and improves.
This documentation is written for developers who want to understand not just what CocoPlus does, but why it was designed the way it was. The features make more sense when you understand the problems they're solving. The architecture makes more sense when you understand the principles behind it.
Read these in order, or jump to what you need.
The Documents
Data Context — Read This First If You're a Data Engineer
Why data projects need different orchestration than software projects. How CocoPlus specifically extends Coco. The ideology of deterministic execution in a probabilistic domain.
This document explains the foundational "why" specific to Snowflake data engineering — the gap between what Coco provides and what CocoPlus adds, and the argument for treating process determinism as the answer to AI's inherent probabilism.
Manifesto — Start Here
Why CocoPlus exists. The problem it solves. What it believes.
AI-assisted development fails not because the AI is incapable — it fails because the work lacks structure. This document makes the case for why structure matters and what CocoPlus does about it.
Concepts — The Mental Models
The vocabulary and ideas you need to make sense of everything else.
Seven core concepts: the lifecycle, CocoFlow pipelines, the persona system, the three-layer memory, the Safety Gate, CocoCupper and CocoGrove, token economics, and CocoPod. Understanding these means understanding the system.
Architecture — How It's Built
Four pillars. One coherent system.
CocoPlus is built entirely from Coco-native constructs: Rules (AGENTS.md), Agents (subagents), Skills (SKILL.md files), and Hooks (lifecycle interceptors). This document explains how they work together and why each piece is designed the way it is.
Features — What It Does
All thirty-nine features, in plain language.
Every feature: what it does, what commands it exposes, why it exists, and when to use it. Opinionated descriptions, not neutral documentation.
Principles — The Philosophy
Twelve design principles. The reasoning behind every major decision.
These are the ideas that make CocoPlus internally consistent. When you understand them, you can predict how new situations should be handled — even situations the documentation doesn't explicitly cover.
Using CocoPlus
Getting Started — Installation to First Project
Prerequisites, plugin installation, pod initialization, feature activation, and your first orientation commands.
Start here when you're ready to go from zero to initialized. Covers everything from coco plugins install through $cocoplus on to verifying your Snowflake environment is scanned and understood.
Workflows — How to Actually Use It
Nine full scenario walkthroughs: from a new pipeline build to parallel CocoHarvest builds, SecondEye plan critiques, returning after time away, safety gate handling, brainstorming with CocoSpark, and large-scale CocoFleet execution.
Not tutorials — professional usage patterns, with context, trade-offs, and the decisions that matter.
Command Reference — Every Command
All commands, all flags, all outputs. Organized by feature. Includes a quick-reference card at the end.
Use this when you know what you want to do and need the exact command or flag.
The Quick Picture
If you want the shortest possible summary of CocoPlus:
What it is: A plugin for Coco CLI that adds lifecycle structure, specialist agents, persistent memory, safety protection, and continuous learning to your Snowflake development workflow.
What it runs on: Four Coco-native pillars (Rules, Agents, Skills, Hooks) and a file-based state store in .cocoplus/. No external services.
What it believes: Structure enables speed. Specialists outperform generalists. Hard gates protect irreversible operations. Institutional memory compounds. Token economics are architecture.
How to install: cortex skill add Snowflake-Labs/cocoplus. If skill add reports "No valid skills found", launch with cortex --plugin-dir Snowflake-Labs/cocoplus instead. Then $pod init in your project directory, $cocoplus on to activate all features, and $spec to begin work.
Good documentation doesn't just describe a system. It explains why the system makes the choices it makes — so you can extend it without breaking it.