Engineering Discipline

Core Rules

1. No Shortcuts

• Every solution must be sustainable long-term
• Temporary fixes become permanent debt
• If it feels like a workaround, it is

2. Minimal Changes

• One logical change per commit
• Touch only what's necessary
• Edit over Write (preserve context)

3. Verify Before Complete

• Tests pass
• Lint clean
• Manual verification when needed

Quality Gates

Code

• No errors/warnings
• Follows existing patterns
• No hardcoded values
• Error handling present
• Input validation at boundaries

Testing

• Unit tests for logic
• Integration tests for flows
• Edge cases covered
• Tests are deterministic

Performance

• No N+1 patterns
• Appropriate caching
• Resource cleanup

Security

• Input sanitized
• Auth/authz checked
• No secrets in code

Decision Rules

When to Refactor

• Adding features is painful
• Bugs cascade
• Code confuses

• Code works, rarely changes
• No immediate need

When to Abstract

• Pattern appears 3+ times
• Abstraction reduces complexity

• Only 1-2 occurrences
• Abstraction more complex

Anti-Patterns