H·AI·K·U ships with 12 built-in studios that work out of the box. When your workflow doesn't fit these defaults, you can customize at every level — studios, stages, hats, and providers — without forking the plugin.

All customizations live under .haiku/ in your project and take precedence over built-in defaults.

What You Can Customize

Artifact	Location	Purpose
Studio	`.haiku/studios/{name}/STUDIO.md`	Define a new lifecycle template
Stage	`.haiku/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/STAGE.md`	Add a phase to a studio
Hat	`.haiku/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/hats/{hat}.md`	Define agent behavior within a stage
Provider instructions	`.haiku/providers/{type}.md`	Customize how H·AI·K·U talks to Jira, Slack, etc.
Settings	`.haiku/settings.yml`	Global project configuration

Creating a Custom Studio

A studio defines which stages run and in what order. To create one:

Create the studio directory and STUDIO.md:

.haiku/studios/data-pipeline/STUDIO.md

---
name: data-pipeline
description: ETL and data pipeline development
stages: [discovery, extraction, transformation, validation, deployment]
persistence:
  type: git
  delivery: pull-request
---

Create a stage for each entry in the stages list (see below).
Set it as your default in .haiku/settings.yml:

studio: data-pipeline

Or specify it per-intent when running /haiku:new.

Creating a Custom Stage

Each stage needs a STAGE.md and a hats/ directory with at least one hat file.

.haiku/studios/data-pipeline/stages/validation/
  STAGE.md
  hats/
    validator.md
    data-quality-reviewer.md

STAGE.md frontmatter:

---
name: validation
description: Validate data quality and schema compliance
hats: [validator, data-quality-reviewer]
review: ask
unit_types: [validation, data-quality]
inputs:
  - stage: transformation
    output: transformed-data
---

Stage Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	yes	Stage identifier (matches directory name)
`description`	string	yes	What this stage accomplishes
`hats`	list	yes	Ordered hat sequence — agents execute in this order
`review`	enum	yes	`auto`, `ask`, `external`, `await`, or `[external, ask]`
`gate-protocol`	object	no	Timeout duration, timeout action (`escalate`, `auto-advance`, `block`), and pre-conditions
`unit_types`	list	no	Constrains which unit types this stage processes
`inputs`	list	no	Artifacts required from prior stages

Review Modes

auto — Advance without human review if completion criteria pass
ask — Pause for human approval before advancing
external — Block until external review (e.g., PR approval)
await — Block until an external event occurs (e.g., customer response, CI result, stakeholder decision)
[external, ask] — Try external first, fall back to ask

Creating a Custom Hat

Hat files define what an agent does within a stage. Each hat file follows a simple structure:

.haiku/studios/data-pipeline/stages/validation/hats/validator.md:

**Focus:** Run data quality checks against the schema definition and business
rules. Verify row counts, null rates, type conformance, and referential integrity.

**Produces:** Validation report with pass/fail per check, sample failing rows,
and severity ratings.

**Reads:** Transformed data output, schema definitions, business rule document.

**Anti-patterns:**
- Approving data that has unresolved null-rate violations
- Skipping referential integrity checks for "small" datasets
- Trusting row counts without spot-checking distributions

Hat File Sections

Section	Purpose
Focus	The core responsibility — what this agent concentrates on
Produces	Artifacts or outputs the hat creates
Reads	Inputs the hat consumes from prior hats or stages
Anti-patterns	Common mistakes to avoid — these guide the agent away from bad habits

These sections are loaded directly into the agent's prompt during execution. Be specific — vague instructions produce vague results.

Augmenting Built-in Hats

You don't need to replace a built-in hat to customize it. Create a project-level hat file at the same path, and its content is appended to the built-in instructions under a ## Project Augmentation header.

For example, to add project-specific guidance to the software studio's builder hat:

.haiku/studios/software/stages/development/hats/builder.md

**Project-specific guidance:**

- Always use the `trpc` router pattern for new API endpoints
- Run `bun test:e2e` in addition to unit tests before marking complete
- Database migrations must be reversible

This augments (not replaces) the built-in builder instructions.

Customizing Provider Instructions

H·AI·K·U ships with default instructions for each provider category (ticketing, spec, design, comms). To override them for your project:

Run /haiku:setup — it offers to create override files during provider configuration
Or manually create .haiku/providers/{type}.md (e.g., .haiku/providers/jira.md)

The override file replaces the built-in instructions for that provider type. See Providers for details.

Resolution Order

For all customizable artifacts, H·AI·K·U checks project-level first:

Artifact	Project Path	Built-in Path
Studio	`.haiku/studios/{name}/STUDIO.md`	`plugin/studios/{name}/STUDIO.md`
Stage	`.haiku/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/STAGE.md`	`plugin/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/STAGE.md`
Hat	`.haiku/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/hats/{hat}.md`	`plugin/studios/{name}/stages/{stage}/hats/{hat}.md`
Provider	`.haiku/providers/{type}.md`	`plugin/providers/{category}.md`

Project-level takes precedence. For hats, project-level augments (appends to) the built-in rather than replacing it — unless no built-in exists.

Scaffolding with `/haiku:scaffold`

Use /haiku:scaffold to generate the directory structure and template files for custom artifacts:

/haiku:scaffold studio data-pipeline
/haiku:scaffold stage data-pipeline validation
/haiku:scaffold hat data-pipeline validation data-quality-reviewer

This creates the files with the correct frontmatter structure, ready for you to fill in.

Example: Adding a Compliance Stage

To add a compliance stage to the built-in software studio:

Create the stage directory:

.haiku/studios/software/stages/compliance/
  STAGE.md
  hats/
    compliance-auditor.md
    documentation-writer.md

Define the stage:

---
name: compliance
description: Regulatory compliance verification
hats: [compliance-auditor, documentation-writer]
review: external
unit_types: [compliance]
inputs:
  - stage: development
    output: code
  - stage: security
    output: threat-model
---

Override the software studio's stage list in your project:

.haiku/studios/software/STUDIO.md

---
name: software
description: Software development with compliance
stages: [inception, design, product, development, operations, security, compliance]
persistence:
  type: git
  delivery: pull-request
---

Next Steps

Studios — Built-in studio details and configuration
Stages — Stage schema and built-in stages
The Hat System — Understanding hat-based roles
Providers — External tool integrations