hani-q Build the lever
When authorized work is not a couple of obvious edits, build the smallest tool that performs or proves it instead of repeating the work by hand.
Build one rerunnable artifact
- Do one unit manually to learn the real recipe.
- Choose the smallest fitting artifact: a script, codemod, generator, query, check, or a single immutable recipe for delegated work. Build a tool, not a framework.
- Make reruns safe. Detect current state, avoid duplicate effects, expose failures, and support a dry run when mutations carry meaningful risk.
- Run the tool against the first unit and diff its result against the manual version. Resolve any mismatch before applying it broadly.
- Use the tool for the remaining scope and keep its output reviewable.
- Prove the produced artifacts directly. A deterministic check is part of the lever when it is what makes the work trustworthy.
A deterministic lever beats several people or agents applying the same recipe by hand. If delegation remains useful, give every delegate the same recipe, verification contract, and write fence. Keep that contract outside their write scope.
Applying this skill to authorized non-trivial work produces a rerunnable file. For a read-only request, propose the file and do not create it. Keep every write inside the user's scope. Invocation alone never authorizes a commit, push, publication, deployment, or external message.
Adapted from Lauren Tan's PStack
principle-build-the-lever
at commit 60c641e4fad674784b30abcf9f8915dea39df38d under the MIT License.
See third-party notices.