Jesserathbun Atlas Plugins Compound Engineering

Compound Engineering

Development methodology where each unit of work makes subsequent work easier. Knowledge flows into the codebase itself - CLAUDE.md, folder AGENTS.md, inline comments, tests.

Core Philosophy

Each unit of engineering work should make subsequent units easier--not harder.

Traditional development accumulates technical debt. Compound Engineering inverts this by creating a learning loop where every insight gets documented and reused.

Time allocation: 40% planning, 20% work, 20% review, 20% compound

The Loop

Research -> Plan -> Work -> Review -> Compound
   ^                                  |
   +----------------------------------+

Phase 1: Research

Goal: Understand before building. Research is ephemeral - capture what matters, discard the rest.

Simple Tasks (< 1 hour)

Quick inline research:

• Search codebase for similar patterns
• Check CLAUDE.md for relevant guidance
• Look for folder AGENTS.md in target directories

Complex Tasks (> 1 hour)

Spawn parallel Explore agents:

Agent 1: "Find patterns for [feature] in src/ - look at similar components, utilities, hooks"
Agent 2: "Check git history: git log --oneline --grep='[related term]' and git log -p [relevant files]"
Agent 3: "Review CLAUDE.md and any AGENTS.md files for guidance on [area]"

Wait for all agents -> Synthesize into brief context

Research Output

Do NOT create scout files. Instead:

• If you learn something project-wide -> Add to CLAUDE.md
• If you learn something folder-specific -> Add to src/[folder]/AGENTS.md
• If it's only relevant for this task -> Keep in working memory, discard after

Phase 2: Plan

Goal: Define what success looks like before writing code.

Create Task List

Use TodoWrite with clear acceptance criteria:

TodoWrite([
  {
    content: "Add validatePhone to src/utils/validation.ts - follow email pattern, handle extensions, add JSDoc",
    status: "pending",
    activeForm: "Adding phone validation utility"
  },
  {
    content: "Add unit tests for validatePhone - valid formats, invalid formats, edge cases (extensions, international)",
    status: "pending",
    activeForm: "Adding phone validation tests"
  },
  {
    content: "Integrate phone validation into contact form - add to form schema, display error messages",
    status: "pending",
    activeForm: "Integrating phone validation into form"
  }
])

Task Requirements

Each task description must include:

• What to do - specific action
• Where - files to create/modify
• Acceptance criteria - how to verify (always include echo "Validation passed - shell scripts and markdown" passes)
• Pattern reference - similar code to follow

Architectural Decisions

For significant choices, document in CLAUDE.md Decisions section:

## Decision: [Choice Made]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Context:** [situation requiring decision]
**Options considered:**
1. [Option A] - [tradeoffs]
2. [Option B] - [tradeoffs]
**Decision:** [what was chosen]
**Rationale:** [why]

Phase 3: Work

Goal: Execute systematically with continuous validation.

Execution Workflow

1. Mark task in_progress via TodoWrite
2. Read context - STATE.md, progress.txt, relevant AGENTS.md, related code
3. Implement - follow existing patterns
4. Validate continuously:

   echo "Validation passed - shell scripts and markdown"
   

5. Commit incrementally - small, focused commits
6. Mark task complete via TodoWrite
7. Repeat for next task

For Multi-Task Features

Use Atlas for systematic task execution:

"run atlas" -> Atlas picks ready tasks, implements, validates, commits, repeats

Working Principles

• Follow patterns discovered in research
• Keep changes focused - no scope creep
• Run validation after every meaningful change
• If something fails, understand why before proceeding

Phase 4: Review

Goal: Multi-perspective quality check before considering work done.

Review Flow

For most tasks, run sequentially:

Step 1: Code Review Spawn code-reviewer agent:

Review the changes for this feature:
- Code quality and patterns
- Security concerns
- Performance implications
- Test coverage

Step 2: Functional Verification (UI tasks, if Playwright available)

Check for Playwright:

test -f .claude/skills/playwright-browser/SKILL.md && echo "available" || echo "not installed"

If available, invoke the skill and use browser tools:

/skill playwright-browser  # Load Playwright tools first
browser_navigate(url: "http://localhost:3000/[page]")
browser_snapshot()  # Verify elements, text, structure
browser_fill_form(...)  # Test interactions
browser_snapshot()  # Verify results

If not available, skip browser verification.

Review Checklist

Code Quality

• Follows existing patterns from CLAUDE.md
• No unnecessary complexity
• Clear naming matching project conventions
• No debug code or console.logs

Security

• No secrets or sensitive data exposed
• Input validation where needed
• Safe handling of user data

Performance

• No obvious regressions
• No render loops or unnecessary re-renders
• Images optimized, lazy loaded where appropriate

Testing

• Acceptance criteria covered
• Edge cases considered
• Appropriate test attributes added

Architecture

• Consistent with system design
• No unnecessary coupling
• Follows separation of concerns

Phase 5: Compound

Goal: Capture learnings to make future work easier.

Ask These Questions

After completing work:

1. What did I learn that others should know?
2. What mistake did I make that can be prevented?
3. What pattern did I discover or create?
4. What decision was made and why?

Where Learnings Go

Creating Folder AGENTS.md

Create directly without prompting. The compound phase is already authorized by the user.

Create when:

• You've fixed the same type of bug 2+ times in that folder
• The folder has patterns that differ from project conventions
• A new developer would likely make mistakes without guidance

Template:

# [Folder Name] - Development Guide

## Patterns
- [Pattern 1]: [explanation]
- [Pattern 2]: [explanation]

## Gotchas
- [Gotcha 1]: [how to avoid]

## Related
- [Link to related docs or code]

Compounding in Practice

Example: After adding phone validation

Learned that phone validation needs to handle extensions. Add to src/utils/AGENTS.md:

# Utils - Development Guide

## Validation Patterns
- Phone validation: Support optional extensions with 'x' or 'ext' prefix
- Follow the pattern in validation.ts - each validator returns { isValid, error }

Triggers

Use this skill directly for:

• "research [topic]" - Run research phase only
• "plan [feature]" - Run research + plan phases
• "review this code" - Run review phase on recent changes
• "compound learnings" - Run compound phase after completing work

For full autonomous flow (research -> plan -> work -> review -> compound), use the build-feature skill instead.

Complete

When this skill completes (varies by phase invoked):

Research phase:

• Codebase explored and patterns identified
• Project-wide learnings added to CLAUDE.md (if significant)
• Folder-specific learnings added to AGENTS.md (if applicable)
• Context ready for planning

Plan phase:

• TodoWrite populated with detailed tasks
• Acceptance criteria defined for each task
• Architectural decisions documented

Review phase:

• Code quality assessed via code-reviewer agent
• UI verified via Playwright (if applicable and available)
• Issues identified and fix tasks created (if needed)

Compound phase:

• Learnings captured in CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md
• No prompting for permission (user authorized by invoking compound)
• Documentation updated directly

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