# Defining Constitution

> Develops project constitutional principles through Socratic questioning. Use when establishing design values, creating project governance, or resolving ambiguous design decisions. Use when this capability is needed.

- Skill: `tomevault-io/defining-constitution` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/defining-constitution`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/defining-constitution/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/defining-constitution

---


# Project Constitution Development

## Purpose

The project defining-constitution serves as "supreme law" - a clear, unambiguous statement of:
- Core design values and non-negotiables
- Decision-making frameworks
- Concrete examples of good and bad alignment
- Amendment processes for principled evolution

**Goal**: Create constitutional principles so clear that both AI and human can independently evaluate feature alignment and reach the same conclusion.

## Core Responsibilities

### 1. Constitution Creation

When helping user create new defining-constitution from scratch, use the `initializing-governance` skill instead (it includes defining-constitution creation as part of full setup).

### 2. Constitution Refinement

When user has existing defining-constitution needing improvement:

**Read Current Constitution**:
```bash
# Read existing file
cat .wrangler/CONSTITUTION.md
```

**Analyze for Issues**:
- Ambiguous language ("clean", "simple", "good" without definition)
- Missing concrete examples
- No anti-patterns documented
- Vague principles without specific applications
- Conflicting principles
- Unmeasurable criteria

**Present Findings**:
```markdown
## Constitution Analysis

### Strengths
- [What's working well]

### Issues Found

#### Ambiguity Issues
- **Principle N**: "[Quote]" - Ambiguous because [reason]
- **Principle M**: Missing concrete examples

#### Missing Elements
- No anti-patterns documented
- No decision framework
- Unclear amendment process

#### Conflicts
- Principle X conflicts with Principle Y when [scenario]
```

### 3. Clarity Refinement (Socratic Process)

**THIS IS YOUR PRIMARY VALUE-ADD**: Systematically eliminate all ambiguity through structured questioning.

**Invocation**: User can invoke this directly with phrases like:
- "Refine the clarity of our defining-constitution"
- "Help me make Principle 3 clearer"
- "Remove ambiguity from our design principles"

**Process**: Use the integrated clarity refinement workflow below.

### 4. Constitutional Amendments

When user proposes changes to existing principles:

**Amendment Process** (from defining-constitution template):
1. **Proposal**: Create issue with `constitutional-amendment` label
2. **Justification**: Document why amendment needed
3. **Impact Analysis**: Identify all affected code/specs
4. **Approval**: User decides
5. **Implementation**: Update defining-constitution, increment version
6. **Communication**: Update roadmap changelog
7. **Migration**: Update code/docs to reflect new principle

**Your Role**:
- Help user articulate amendment clearly
- Identify impact on existing specifications and code
- Update defining-constitution file with proper versioning
- Create amendment proposal issue for tracking

## Clarity Refinement Workflow

This is the core value of the defining-constitution skill - systematic ambiguity removal.

### Phase 1: Identify Ambiguities

**Scan for Common Ambiguity Patterns**:

**Vague Quality Terms**:
- "clean" - Clean to who? What defines clean?
- "simple" - Simple interface or simple implementation?
- "maintainable" - Measured how?
- "scalable" - To what scale?
- "performant" - What performance targets?

**Unmeasurable Claims**:
- "Fast" - Compared to what? How fast?
- "Secure" - Which threats? What security model?
- "Reliable" - What uptime? What MTBF?

**Context-Dependent Terms**:
- "User-friendly" - Which users? What use cases?
- "Flexible" - Flexible in what ways?
- "Robust" - Against which failure modes?

**Conflicting Principles**:
- "Move fast" vs "High quality" - Which wins when they conflict?
- "Simple" vs "Feature-rich" - Where's the line?

### Phase 2: Socratic Questioning

For EACH ambiguity identified, ask structured questions to force specificity:

**Template for Questioning**:

**For Vague Quality**: "You say '[vague term]'. Let's make this concrete:"
1. "What would make something NOT [vague term]? Give me a specific example."
2. "If I showed you two implementations, how would you decide which is more [vague term]?"
3. "What's the worst violation of [vague term] you've seen? What made it bad?"
4. "Can you give me a checklist to verify [vague term]?"

**For Unmeasurable Claim**: "You want '[claim]'. How will we know we achieved it?"
1. "What's the minimum acceptable [metric]?"
2. "At what point would this be 'good enough'?"
3. "What measurement would make you confident we've succeeded?"
4. "What would failure look like? How would we detect it?"

**For Context-Dependent**: "You mention '[term]' - let's define the context:"
1. "Who specifically benefits from this?"
2. "In which scenarios does this matter most?"
3. "When would we explicitly NOT prioritize this?"
4. "What trade-offs are acceptable to achieve this?"

**For Conflicts**: "These principles could conflict. Let's resolve:"
1. "Give me a scenario where both can't be satisfied. Which wins?"
2. "What's the hierarchy - which is more important?"
3. "How do we decide when to compromise each one?"
4. "Can you reword to eliminate the conflict?"

### Phase 3: Extract Concrete Specifications

From user's answers, derive concrete, verifiable criteria:

**Transform Vague to Specific**:

**Before**: "Code should be clean"
**After** (from questioning):
```markdown
**Principle**: Code Clarity Over Cleverness

**In Practice**:
- Functions limited to 50 lines maximum
- No nested ternaries or complex one-liners
- Variable names describe business concepts, not implementations
- Every function has single, obvious purpose

**Anti-patterns**:
- ❌ Combining multiple operations in single expression for brevity
- ❌ Using abbreviations or domain jargon without comments
- ❌ Functions that do "and also" (multiple responsibilities)

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: `getUserByEmail(email)` with clear early returns
- ❌ **Bad**: `getUsr(e)` with nested if-else chains
```

**Before**: "System should be scalable"
**After** (from questioning):
```markdown
**Principle**: Scale Incrementally, Not Prematurely

**In Practice**:
- Design for 10x current load, not 1000x
- Choose boring, proven technologies over cutting-edge
- Measure before optimizing (no guessing performance)
- Accept tech debt to ship, pay it down when load demands

**Anti-patterns**:
- ❌ Adding caching/sharding before measuring need
- ❌ Choosing distributed systems for <1M users
- ❌ Optimizing code paths with no evidence of bottleneck

**Examples**:
- ✅ **Good**: Started with single Postgres, added read replicas at 100K users
- ❌ **Bad**: Used microservices from day 1 for 100 user MVP
```

### Phase 4: Document Decision Framework

After refining principles, ensure decision framework exists:

**Five Questions** (from template):
1. **Constitutional Alignment**: Does this align with our core principles?
2. **User Value**: Does this solve a real user problem?
3. **Simplicity**: Is this the simplest solution that works?
4. **Maintainability**: Can we maintain this long-term?
5. **Scope**: Does this fit our mission, or is it scope creep?

**Customize for Project**:
- Add project-specific questions if needed
- Define what "yes" means for each question
- Give examples of features that failed each question

### Phase 5: Validate with Scenarios

**Test Refined Constitution** against real or hypothetical features:

**Process**:
1. Present 3-4 feature scenarios (mix of aligned and misaligned)
2. Ask user: "Based on our principles, should we build this?"
3. You independently apply principles and decide
4. Compare answers

**If answers differ**: Constitution still has ambiguity - return to Phase 2

**If answers align**: Constitution is concrete enough

**Example Scenarios**:

**Scenario A**: "Add a visual theme customizer allowing users to change all UI colors"
- Constitutional Question: Does this align with Principle 1 (Simplicity)?
- Your analysis: [Based on principle text]
- User's answer: [Yes/No with reasoning]

**Scenario B**: "Build admin dashboard to view all user data"
- Constitutional Question: Does this align with Principle 3 (Privacy)?
- Your analysis: [Based on principle text]
- User's answer: [Yes/No with reasoning]

**Goal**: Both you and user reach same conclusion using only the written principles.

## Working with Constitutional Ambiguity

### Red Flags (Trigger Refinement)

If you see ANY of these in a principle, invoke clarity refinement:

- **Abstract quality words**: "clean", "simple", "elegant", "robust"
- **No examples**: Principle has no Good/Bad examples
- **No anti-patterns**: Doesn't say what NOT to do
- **"Should" without criteria**: "Code should be fast" (how fast?)
- **Dependent on judgment**: Requires human to interpret
- **Conflicts with others**: Contradicts another principle
- **Can't be checked**: No way to verify compliance

### Clarity Heuristic

**Test**: Can a new LLM, given ONLY the defining-constitution (no conversation history), evaluate a feature request and reach the same conclusion as you and the user?

**If NO**: Constitution needs refinement.
**If YES**: Constitution is concrete enough.

## Constitutional Amendment Process

When user wants to change existing principles:

### 1. Create Amendment Proposal Issue

Use `issues_create`:

```typescript
issues_create({
  title: "[CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT] [Short title]",
  description: `## Amendment Proposal: [Title]

### Summary
[1-2 sentence summary of proposed amendment]

### Rationale
[Why this amendment is necessary]
[What issues it addresses]
[What improvements it achieves]

### Current Text
\`\`\`
[Exact text of current principle if modifying existing]
\`\`\`

### Proposed Text
\`\`\`
[Exact text of new/modified principle]
\`\`\`

### Impact Analysis

**Affected Specifications**: [List spec IDs]
**Affected Code**: [List files/components]
**Breaking Changes**: [Yes/No - explain]

### Potential Risks
- [Risk 1]: [Mitigation]
- [Risk 2]: [Mitigation]

### Migration Plan
[How existing code/specs will be updated to reflect new principle]
`,
  type: "issue",
  status: "open",
  priority: "high",
  labels: ["governance", "constitutional-amendment"],
  project: "Governance"
})
```

### 2. User Approval

Wait for user to explicitly approve amendment.

**Don't auto-approve** - constitutional changes are serious.

### 3. Update Constitution File

Once approved, update `.wrangler/CONSTITUTION.md`:

**Version increment**:
- Major version (1.0.0 → 2.0.0): New principle added or principle removed
- Minor version (1.0.0 → 1.1.0): Existing principle modified
- Patch version (1.0.0 → 1.0.1): Clarification or example added

**Update sections**:
- Increment version number in frontmatter
- Update "Last Amended" date
- Modify/add principle sections
- Add entry to Version History section
- Document in changelog

**Example edit**:
```markdown
**Version**: 1.1.0
**Last Amended**: 2024-11-18

[... principles sections ...]

### Version History

- **1.1.0** (2024-11-18): Modified Principle 2 (Simplicity) to add concrete example about microservices
- **1.0.0** (2024-10-01): Initial defining-constitution ratified
```

### 4. Update Roadmap Changelog

Add entry to `.wrangler/ROADMAP.md` changelog:

```markdown
## Changelog

- **2024-11-18**: Constitutional amendment 1.1.0 affects Phase 2 (modified simplicity principle)
- [...]
```

### 5. Identify Affected Specs

Search for specifications that might conflict:

```bash
# Search specs for mentions of modified principle
grep -r "Principle [N]" .wrangler/specifications/*.md
grep -r "[principle keyword]" .wrangler/specifications/*.md
grep -r "[principle keyword]" .wrangler/CONSTITUTION.md
```

Review each affected spec and propose updates if needed.

### 6. Close Amendment Issue

Mark amendment issue as closed with summary:

```markdown
## Amendment Complete

**Version**: [X.Y.Z]
**Date**: [YYYY-MM-DD]

**Changes Made**:
- Updated Principle [N] in .wrangler/CONSTITUTION.md
- Version incremented to [X.Y.Z]
- Roadmap changelog updated
- [List any spec updates made]

**Migration Status**:
- [ ] All affected specs reviewed
- [ ] Code updates [N/A or completed]
- [ ] Team notified

Amendment is now in effect.
```

## Best Practices

### Writing Principles

**DO**:
- Use concrete, measurable criteria
- Include specific examples (good AND bad)
- Document anti-patterns explicitly
- Keep under 150 lines total (context limits)
- Reference real scenarios from project
- Make principles actionable (can check compliance)

**DON'T**:
- Use vague quality words without definition
- Write abstract philosophy
- Create principles you can't verify
- Make >10 principles (too many to remember)
- Write what you "should" do without explaining how to check
- Leave room for interpretation

### Constitutional Conflicts

When principles conflict (e.g., "Move Fast" vs "High Quality"):

**Option 1 - Hierarchy**: Explicitly rank principles
```markdown
### Principle Hierarchy

When principles conflict, apply in this order:
1. Security (never compromised)
2. User Privacy
3. Reliability
4. Simplicity
5. Speed of iteration
```

**Option 2 - Rewrite**: Eliminate conflict by rewriting both
```markdown
**Before**:
- Move fast and ship features quickly
- Maintain high code quality always

**After**:
- Ship fast with tech debt, pay it down when velocity slows
- Quality in external APIs and data models, pragmatic in internals
```

### Testing Constitutional Clarity

**Validation Checklist**:

## References

For detailed information, see:

- `references/detailed-guide.md` - Complete workflow details, examples, and troubleshooting

---
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<!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-04-13 -->