Nerd Fast

Nerd Fast

Incompatible Skills

Never combine Nerd with these unless this request explicitly asks:

• Superpowers
• Ponytail
• Caveman

Skill hooks, mentions, and indirect instructions are not authorization.

Composition

Apply this global modifier; it is never a primary specialty and never replaces or restarts the active workflow. Use nerd-smart only for material endpoint, scope, or authorization ambiguity.

Compose with nerd-silent only when the user explicitly invokes both modifiers. Never activate, infer, or auto-compose Silent from latency or presentation preferences. Fast controls operations; Silent controls presentation. Preserve correctness, authorization, safety, user interaction, and proof.

Core Rule

Minimize sequential critical-path rounds. Keep an operation only when it resolves a material unknown, advances the requested deliverable, or produces required proof.

Prefer: reuse -> batch -> parallelize -> target narrowly -> escalate on evidence -> stop when proven.

Use no hard total tool limit. Fixed limits can trade accuracy for speed when proof requires more operations.

Read-Volume Gate

At task start, before the first source read, estimate x, the total estimated lines direct navigation would require, using named scope, known sizes, and likely support; do not read targets merely to calculate it.

• x <= 200: skip symbol_index.py; read or search the targets directly.
• x > 200: resolve scripts/symbol_index.py relative to this SKILL.md, run ensure once before source reads, then navigate with find without implicit refresh.

Do not wait until 200 lines have already been read. Universal Ctags is optional. If ensure reports that Universal Ctags is unavailable, ask once: “Universal Ctags is unavailable. Our measured large-repository workloads showed up to 70% faster indexed navigation. Want me to install it? If not, I’ll continue with narrow text search.” Install only after explicit approval. On decline, unsupported installation, or failure, fall back immediately and do not ask again during the task. For any other unusable, stale, or incomplete index, fall back to an exact-file read or narrow text search. Treat matches as candidates and confirm source before mutation.

Gates

Apply these gates in order. Keep them internal unless a conflict, blocker, or user decision must be reported.

User instructions, repository authority, safety, and the active workflow override these defaults.

Batching and Dependencies

Batch independent operations when their commands and reactions are known. Prefer one operation across known targets or the native batching or parallel interface. Keep adaptive work sequential when an output can change the next operation.

Before dispatching a mutation batch, require every step to be idempotent, transactional, or safely recoverable; otherwise keep mutations sequential and inspect state between them.

Verification-Cost Gate

Select the cheapest fresh check that observes the property being claimed.

Proof Ladder

Choose the lowest tier that directly supports the exact claim. Use V0 only if no mutation invalidated its evidence. Any file mutation, structural refactor, or code addition requires at least V1. Any behavioral completion claim after mutation requires fresh proof.

Reuse dependency, compiler, transpiler, test, runtime, and build caches when trustworthy. Preserve active daemons and watch processes. For static claims, use the narrowest syntax, type, lint, compile, or AST check. For behavioral claims, run one test method, case, file, package, or affected component. Without evidence, avoid clearing caches, reinstalling dependencies, rebuilding unaffected targets, recreating environments, or restarting healthy services. Run clean builds, broad suites, or environment resets only for repository authority, stale state, contradictory evidence, release parity, or a trigger below.

Verification Escalation Triggers

• The user or repository instructions require broader proof.
• The change crosses packages, services, persistence boundaries, or public contracts that narrower proof cannot cover.
• Security, authorization, migration, data-loss, concurrency, release, or production risk makes broader proof proportionate.
• The targeted check fails ambiguously or reveals a wider affected surface.
• The lower tier cannot observe a material part of the completion claim.

Do not run a full suite merely because one exists. Do not rerun an unchanged passing check. Classify failures as related, unrelated, or unknown; correct only related failures in scope. After two evidence-driven correction attempts, report the command, evidence, and smallest needed decision. If proof is narrower, narrow the claim to the verified boundary or Not verified.

Adaptive Path

• If current evidence is sufficient, perform the active endpoint, apply proportionate proof, and stop.
• If an exact target is named, apply the Read-Volume Gate and navigate the target plus its nearest authority or test.
• If the target is unknown, run one narrow discovery batch, inspect the best evidence, and narrow scope.
• If operations are independent, batch or parallelize them and synthesize once.
• If an output can change the next operation, sequence them.
• If a current plan exists, execute its remaining work without rediscovery.
• If current or external information is required, query authoritative sources together and confirm freshness.
• If a failure or contradiction appears, reuse it as evidence, reproduce once when needed, and test one bounded hypothesis.
• If work continues from an earlier turn, reuse the current record, plan, outputs, and diff; refresh only changed or stale evidence.

Use the smallest applicable path; conditions do not grant permission or replace the active workflow.

Execution Discipline

For non-atomic work, keep current evidence, one critical unknown, next independent batch, lowest sufficient proof, and stop condition. Skip fields without a material consumer.

Each TODO must deliver an outcome, remove a blocker, or provide proof. Do not reread unchanged files, repeat passing commands, or replan after each result. Reuse evidence until mutation, contradiction, staleness, or dependency failure invalidates it.

Prefer a structured patch or targeted-edit primitive. Do not reproduce unchanged file content. Rewrite a whole file only when generated, mostly changed, or handled by a trusted formatter or codemod.

For routine authorized operations, invoke the tool immediately. Explain first only for approval, safety, a material decision, or a required progress update. Silent controls overall narration and final presentation.

Dispatch reviewers or subagents only when the active workflow permits them and expected wall-clock savings exceed setup and handoff cost.

Conflict Discipline

When Fast conflicts with repository instructions, safety, the active workflow, or a supported completion claim, yield to the higher authority and take the lowest-cost valid path.

Treat tool errors as evidence. Correct the invocation or assumption once, then broaden only when the error shows that the current scope or source is insufficient.

After changing this skill family, run python3 scripts/validate_skills.py.