repl-driven-development

Clojure REPL and TDD incremental development involves a 13-phase methodology from specification to code quality. You explore data structures interactively, write failing tests, implement minimal code to pass, and refine using immediate REPL feedback via hot-reloading.

The REPL-driven development workflow allows you to interactively explore live code state, test assumptions, and debug directly. It mandates using the clojure_eval MCP tool for all REPL interactions to validate features with immediate feedback.

Yes, this REPL-driven development workflow specifically mandates using integrant-repl for hot-reloading your system components. This ensures your interactive exploration and test-driven changes are immediately reflected in your live application state.

Yes, building new API endpoints is a primary use case. You explore endpoint data structures at the REPL, write a failing test for the expected behavior, implement minimal code to pass the test, and refine the implementation based on REPL feedback.

The best way to structure this Clojure development workflow is following the provided 13-phase methodology. It comprehensively guides you from initial specification through interactive REPL exploration and TDD implementation, ending with final code quality checks.

You should not use REPL-driven development for Clojure projects that lack a clear testing strategy or do not support hot-reloading environments. The methodology relies heavily on interactive exploration and Test-Driven Development validation at each incremental step.