Martin clean code

Apply the book's guidance within current project constraints. When rules conflict, rank them:

1. Correctness and explicit requirements.
2. Security and data integrity.
3. Repository and language standards.
4. Tests and measured evidence.
5. Clarity for the next reader.
6. Book heuristics.

Use size and count as design signals. Base decisions on responsibility and change pressure.

Operating loop

Follow this loop for implementation, refactoring, and review work.

1. Establish the baseline. Name the required behavior and its protecting test or validation. Record the current result.
2. Diagnose one concrete smell. Cite the code evidence and name the responsibility or concept involved.
3. Route the smell. Read each matching chapter or pattern before selecting a change.
4. Act within authority, on one path only:
   • Change task: make one scoped improvement. Preserve behavior outside the requested change.
   • Review task: record the finding as file and line, the evidence quoted from the code, the rule it breaks, and the recommended move. Account for every in-scope instance of the selected rule. Leave the code as you found it.
5. Validate the result. Run the complete relevant tests or validation commands. Record each pass, failure, or unavailable validation.
6. Compare before and after. State how the result changes readability, coupling, duplication, or change cost.

Repeat steps 2 through 6 while in-scope smells remain.

Complete the task after you cover every requested change or finding. Required validations must pass, or each remaining failure needs an explanation.

Route by evidence

Read every file whose branch matches observed evidence, then stop.

Conditional references

• Read the topic index when one concern spans several chapters.
• Read the cheatsheet first when the task is a broad review rather than one diagnosed smell.
• Read the patterns catalog when selecting a concrete transformation after diagnosing a smell.
• Read the glossary when an unfamiliar book term affects the decision.