--- title: Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling... description: Google has open sourced the Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM) plugin, a framework for design-driven AI software development. The 'Elephant' is a long-horizon AI... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling design-driven AI software development | daily.dev og:description: Google has open sourced the Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM) plugin, a framework for design-driven AI software development. The 'Elephant' is a long-horizon AI... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/liY0vmGNV.png og:image:alt: Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling design-driven AI software development og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling design-driven AI software development **[Google Open Source Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/googleoss)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Google has open sourced the Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM) plugin, a framework for design-driven AI software development. The 'Elephant' is a long-horizon AI session that holds architectural vision and no code, while 'Goldfish' are stateless sessions that adversarially validate design documents. The plugin automates three phases: brainstorming (egm-brainstorm), drafting a Markdown design doc (egm-draft), and a three-step Goldfish review (egm-review) covering comprehension checks, antagonistic review, and implementation readiness. It's released under Apache 2.0, integrates with Antigravity first, and was already used daily by thousands of Googlers internally to ship production code. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the Elephant-Goldfish Model for AI-assisted software development? It's a framework pairing a long-horizon 'Elephant' AI session, which holds architectural vision and writes no code, with stateless 'Goldfish' sessions that adversarially validate the design document. Goldfish sessions run a comprehension check, an antagonistic review for edge cases and gaps, and a final implementation-readiness go/no-go check before code is written. _Teams formalizing AI-assisted design review can compare this workflow against their own process on daily.dev._ ### Is there an open source plugin that implements the Elephant-Goldfish Model for AI coding? Yes, Google released the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license. It was originally built internally for Google engineers and is used daily by thousands of Googlers to ship production code; it includes customizable Markdown rules, subagent personas, and structured review workflows, with initial integration into the Antigravity development environment. _Developers weighing new open source AI-workflow tools can track releases like this one on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@nark3d** · 0 upvotes > Glad this is out in the open. The three-step review, though: does the Goldfish session get the design doc alone, or does it also see the discussion that produced it? I ask because the comprehension check is only adversarial if the reviewer hasn't already been told what the doc was meant to say. Either way, looking forward to trying it. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How Siemens “sliced the elephant,” modernizing legacy code with agentic workflows](https://daily.dev/posts/how-siemens-sliced-the-elephant-modernizing-legacy-code-with-agentic-workflows-rco1o9zac) · Google Cloud · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Beyond the Chatbot: A Blueprint for Trustable AI](https://daily.dev/posts/beyond-the-chatbot-a-blueprint-for-trustable-ai-4g74onjot) · Google Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google unveils new AI cloud tools to support game development](https://daily.dev/posts/google-unveils-new-ai-cloud-tools-to-support-game-development-woia7ttse) · GamesIndustry.biz · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#google](https://daily.dev/tags/google), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#prompt-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/prompt-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling design-driven AI software development","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv"},"datePublished":"2026-10-22T20:03:40.304Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T18:58:44.321Z","description":"Google has open sourced the Elephant-Goldfish Model (EGM) plugin, a framework for design-driven AI software development. The 'Elephant' is a long-horizon AI...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c48427e1271d52b73c8c10affc4e70ef?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c48427e1271d52b73c8c10affc4e70ef?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Google Open Source Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Google Open Source Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/8a87f457bf1a481b80c313f66a71200b","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/googleoss"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"general-programming,google,ai-coding,prompt-engineering","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Google Open Source Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/googleoss"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Introducing the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin: scaling design-driven AI software development"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Glad this is out in the open. The three-step review, though: does the Goldfish session get the design doc alone, or does it also see the discussion that produced it? I ask because the comprehension check is only adversarial if the reviewer hasn’t already been told what the doc was meant to say. Either way, looking forward to trying it.","datePublished":"2026-10-24T16:23:40.747Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/liY0vmGNV#c-w7eC1EIOc","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam","url":"https://daily.dev/nark3d","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2162621?v=4"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-elephant-goldfish-model-plugin-scaling-design-driven-ai-software-development-liy0vmgnv#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the Elephant-Goldfish Model for AI-assisted software development?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It's a framework pairing a long-horizon 'Elephant' AI session, which holds architectural vision and writes no code, with stateless 'Goldfish' sessions that adversarially validate the design document. Goldfish sessions run a comprehension check, an antagonistic review for edge cases and gaps, and a final implementation-readiness go/no-go check before code is written. Teams formalizing AI-assisted design review can compare this workflow against their own process on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is there an open source plugin that implements the Elephant-Goldfish Model for AI coding?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, Google released the Elephant-Goldfish Model plugin on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license. It was originally built internally for Google engineers and is used daily by thousands of Googlers to ship production code; it includes customizable Markdown rules, subagent personas, and structured review workflows, with initial integration into the Antigravity development environment. Developers weighing new open source AI-workflow tools can track releases like this one on daily.dev."}}]} ```