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mdsmithaustinmdsmithaustin/pstack/skills/principle-laziness-protocol/SKILL.md

principle-laziness-protocol

Skill9 starsChanged 37 days agoMITView on GitHub

Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem. Judge simplicity in the resulting design rather than diff size.

50 other projects use a version of this, 47 of them edited.

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  • 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

6 rules. 6 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 6

    Common

    Most of the 50 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:

    Prefer deletion: When asked to refactor or improve, look for removals before additions.

    line 10
  2. Common:

    Maintain a flat call hierarchy: Avoid deep call chains. A rich interface that hides substantial work is not a deep call chain.

    line 11
  3. Common:

    Consolidate decisions: Do not repeat the same choice in several places.

    line 12
  4. Common:

    Question the threading: If a task asks you to pass a new signal through types, schemas, pipelines, or similar layers, stop and look for a …

    line 14
  5. Common:

    Sweat the small leaks: Remove tiny pass-throughs, representation leaks, and duplicated choices before they spread.

    line 15
  6. Common:

    The test: If a human developer would find the code exhausting to maintain, it is a bad solution.

    line 17

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 50 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

Laziness Protocol

Aim for the most result with the least code and complexity.

  • Prefer deletion. When asked to refactor or improve, look for removals before additions.
  • Maintain a flat call hierarchy. Avoid deep call chains. A rich interface that hides substantial work is not a deep call chain. If answering a question requires tracing through more than 3 files or layers, flatten it.
  • Consolidate decisions. Do not repeat the same choice in several places. Put it behind one source of truth and pass the result as a simple flag.
  • Minimize maintenance cost. Judge the resulting design after it absorbs the requirement. Restructure the unit being extended when that removes demonstrated complexity, even if the diff grows. Keep adequate structure and useful tests. Avoid abstractions for hypothetical requirements.
  • Question the threading. If a task asks you to pass a new signal through types, schemas, pipelines, or similar layers, stop and look for a more direct path.
  • Sweat the small leaks. Remove tiny pass-throughs, representation leaks, and duplicated choices before they spread. Small leaks compound into permanent coordination costs.

The test: If a human developer would find the code exhausting to maintain, it is a bad solution.

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