AeonDave Design Before Implementation
Do not optimize the wrong plan. A short design prevents long rework.
Hard gate
Before implementation, produce a design summary and get explicit or clearly implied approval unless the user gave exact step-by-step instructions or the change is a trivial single-edit fix.
Design workflow
- Context scan: inspect current structure, conventions, and constraints.
- Scope check: split work that contains independent subsystems or targets.
- Clarify intent: ask only the missing questions that affect design, safety, or data integrity.
- Options: present 2-3 viable approaches with tradeoffs and a recommendation.
- Design summary: architecture, data/control flow, touched areas, testing, risks, non-goals.
- Review gate: resolve ambiguity, TODOs, contradictions, and scope creep before planning.
Offensive and research focus
- Restate scope, allowed actions, noise/destructive limits, and evidence requirements.
- Prefer the smallest viable technique chain before expanding tooling.
- Separate reconnaissance, exploitability, tooling, validation, and reporting decisions.
- Stop when verification would require access or actions outside the approved boundary.
Output shape
- Goal: one sentence.
- Non-goals: what this will not do.
- Approach: recommended option and why.
- Interfaces/artifacts: files, commands, reports, APIs, or evidence outputs.
- Validation: how success and failure will be proven.
- Open questions: only blockers or meaningful tradeoffs.
Resources
Load on demand:
references/design-gates.md— spec review checklist and common design failure modes.