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lengjingxulengjingxu/pstack-for-codex/skills/principle-build-the-lever/SKILL.md

principle-build-the-lever

Skill1 starsChanged 24 days agoMITView on GitHub

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or proves it (codemod, script, generator, or a skill your subagents follow) instead of working by hand. The tool is the artifact a reviewer can rerun.

45 other projects use a version of this, 42 of them edited.

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Used with

Projects with it also use ketchup-video, maintain-formal-verification-skill and 2 more.

Other files people use alongside this one.

Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
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    Catch the user up like /keel:ketchup, with a short silent video of slides for what happened and the waiting calls as text under it. Use for /keel:ketchup-video.

    Also in 10 projects that use this

  • TheOnlyFusionCubeSkill

    maintain-formal-verification-skill

    Bring a project's formal verification back in line with the code after the code changes: find the commits that touched verified code, update the model, harness, or properties to describe the code as it is now, rerun, and say whether each failure is drift in the verification or a bug in the code. Use for /maintain-formal-verification-skill, \"is the model still true to the code\", or after merges and refactors that touched verified code without rechecking it.

    Also in 16 projects that use this

  • TheOnlyFusionCubeSkill

    statechart

    Draw what an app's user sees as a Mermaid statechart from a TLA+ model. States are gray if they work, red if still wrong, and green if fixed. Each bug TLC finds is a numbered path. Use for /statechart, \"show the PM the bug\", or to turn an agreed chart into a TLA+ skeleton.

    Also in 15 projects that use this

  • JoshueOsunaSkill

    Poteto Mode

    poteto's agent style for concise, detailed responses, deliberate subagents, unslopped prose, simple code, and verified work. Use for poteto, /poteto-mode, or requests to work in this style.

    Also in 3 projects that use this

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

5 rules. 5 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 5

    Common

    Most of the 45 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 0

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 0

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Common:

    When the work isn't trivial, build the tool that does it instead of doing it by hand.

    line 8
  2. Common:

    Default to building the lever.

    line 12
  3. Common:

    Do the first unit by hand to learn the recipe, then build the tool.

    line 14
  4. Common:

    When you fan work out to subagents, write the lever as a skill they all read: the recipe, the verification contract, and the do-not-touch …

    line 17
  5. Common:

    Commit the lever when the work outlives the session.

    line 19

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 45 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Build the Lever

When the work isn't trivial, build the tool that does it instead of doing it by hand.

A codemod, generator, or script does the work the same way every time and reruns for free. The tool is one artifact a reviewer can read and rerun to check the work. Hand-done changes can only be re-verified by redoing them. A deterministic script turns "trust me" into "run this".

Default to building the lever. Skip it only when the task is trivial, a couple of obvious edits you can see at a glance.

  • Do the first unit by hand to learn the recipe, then build the tool. Prove it by rerunning it on that unit and diffing against your hand-done version. Make the lever safe to rerun.
  • Codemod or script for edits, generator for repetitive files, a dump-to-sqlite query for analysis, a rerunnable check for verification.
  • A deterministic lever beats fan-out. If the tool can process every unit in one pass, run it yourself. Don't fan out delegates to hand-apply what a script can do.
  • When you fan work out to subagents, write the lever as a skill they all read: the recipe, the verification contract, and the do-not-touch fences in one artifact. Keep it outside the delegates' write scope so they can't quietly edit the contract.
  • Applying this principle produces a file. If you cited it and there is no codemod, script, generator, or delegate skill in the diff, you didn't apply it.
  • Commit the lever when the work outlives the session.

The bar is triviality, not repetition. A one-off still earns a lever when the lever is what makes the work checkable. Per the Laziness Protocol), build the smallest script that does or proves the job, never a framework.

Distinct from Encode Lessons in Structure), which makes a recurring instruction a durable guardrail. This is throughput and reviewability on the work in front of you. For scripting the verification itself, see Prove It Works).

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