Software Craft

Software Engineering

Engineering judgment - thoughtful decisions - quality code.

• Making architectural or design decisions
• Evaluating trade-offs between approaches
• Determining appropriate level of thoroughness
• Assessing when code needs refactoring
• Deciding when to ask vs proceed independently
• Balancing speed, quality, maintainability

NOT for: mechanical tasks, clear-cut decisions, following explicit instructions

Core engineering judgment framework.

User preferences trump defaults CLAUDE.md, project rules, existing patterns always override skill suggestions.

Simplest thing that works Start simple. Add complexity only when requirements demand.

• Boring solutions for boring problems
• Proven libraries over custom implementations
• Progressive enhancement over rewrites

Read before write Understand existing patterns before modifying.

• Check how similar features implemented
• Follow established conventions
• Maintain consistency

Small, focused changes One idea per commit, 20-100 LOC, 1-5 files.

• Easy to review/understand
• Lower bug risk
• Simpler to revert
• Faster feedback

Security awareness Don't introduce vulnerabilities.

• Validate external input
• Parameterized queries
• Handle auth properly
• No secrets in code/logs

Know when to stop Ship working code, don't gold-plate.

• Implement requirements, not assumptions
• No unrequested features
• No speculative abstraction

Type safety across languages.

Core principle: Make illegal states unrepresentable. Type system should prevent invalid data at compile time, not runtime.

Hierarchy: Correct (type-safe) - Clear (self-documenting) - Precise (not overly broad)

Key patterns:

• Result types - Errors explicit in signatures, not hidden in exceptions
• Discriminated unions - Mutually exclusive states with discriminator field
• Branded types - Distinct types for domain concepts (user ID vs product ID)
• Parse, don't validate - Transform untyped to typed at boundaries, trust types internally

See type-patterns.md for detailed concepts. Load typescript-dev/SKILL.md for TypeScript implementations.

Systematic approach to engineering choices.

Understand before deciding

• What problem being solved?
• What constraints exist?
• What's already in codebase?
• What patterns does project use?

Consider trade-offs No perfect solutions:

• Speed vs robustness
• Simplicity vs flexibility
• Consistency vs optimization
• Implement time vs maintain time

Recognize good-enough Perfect is enemy of shipped:

• Meets requirements?
• Maintainable by team?
• Tested adequately?
• Can improve incrementally?

If yes to all - ship it.

Document significant choices Non-obvious decisions: comment why, note trade-offs, link discussions, flag assumptions.

Balance autonomy with collaboration.

Proceed independently:

• Task clear and well-defined
• Approach follows existing patterns
• Changes small and localized
• Requirements fully understood
• No security/data integrity risks

Ask questions:

• Requirements ambiguous
• Multiple approaches, unclear trade-offs
• Changes affect architecture
• Security/compliance implications
• Unfamiliar domain/technology

Escalate immediately:

• Security vulnerabilities discovered
• Data corruption/loss risk
• Breaking changes to public APIs
• Performance degradation detected

Don't guess on high-stakes decisions.

Standards separating good from professional code.

Type safety: Make illegal states unrepresentable via discriminated unions, branded types.

Error handling: Every error path needs explicit handling. No silent failures.

Naming: Functions=verbs (calculateTotal), variables=nouns (userId), booleans=questions (isValid).

Function design: One thing well. 10-30 lines typical, max 50. 3 params ideal, max 5. Pure when possible.

Comments: Explain why, not what.

See code-quality-patterns.md for examples.

When and how to improve existing code.

Refactor when:

• Adding feature reveals poor structure
• Code duplicated 3+ times
• Function exceeds 50 lines
• Naming unclear/misleading
• Tests difficult to write

Don't refactor when:

• Code works and won't be touched
• Time-critical delivery in progress
• No test coverage to verify
• Scope creep from main task
• Just preference, no clear benefit

Guidelines:

• Have tests first (or write them)
• One refactoring at a time
• Keep tests passing throughout
• Commit refactors separately from features
• Don't change behavior

Testing philosophy.

Test the right things:

• Public interfaces, not implementation
• Edge cases and error paths
• Critical business logic
• Integration points
• Security boundaries

Don't over-test:

• No tests for trivial getters/setters
• Don't test framework behavior
• Avoid brittle implementation-coupled tests

Coverage targets:

• Critical paths: 90%+
• Business logic: 80%+
• Utility functions: 80%+
• Overall: 70%+

Low coverage acceptable for: config, type definitions, framework boilerplate.

Balance optimization with delivery.

Premature optimization is root of evil

• Make it work first
• Make it right second
• Make it fast only if needed

Optimize when:

• Measured performance issue exists
• User experience degraded
• Resource costs excessive
• Profiler shows clear bottleneck

Before optimizing:

1. Measure current performance
2. Set target metrics
3. Profile to find bottleneck
4. Optimize specific bottleneck
5. Measure improvement
6. Document trade-offs

Don't optimize based on gut feeling or without measurement.

Security mindset for all code.

Input validation: Validate all external input, sanitize before processing, allowlists over blocklists.

Auth: Never trust client-side checks, verify on server, use proven libraries, don't roll your own crypto.

Data handling: Never log sensitive data, hash passwords (bcrypt/argon2), parameterized queries, strict file upload validation.

Dependencies: Keep updated, review advisories, minimize count, audit before adding.

Red flags to escalate: Payment info, user credentials, health/financial data, encryption implementation, session management.

Common mistakes to avoid.

Over-engineering: Building "might need" features, premature abstraction, excessive config, enterprise patterns for simple problems. Fix: YAGNI. Build for today.

Under-engineering: No error handling, no input validation, ignoring edge cases, copy-paste over functions. Fix: Basic quality isn't optional.

Scope creep: "While I'm here...", refactoring unrelated code, adding unrequested features. Fix: Stay focused. File issues for unrelated work.

Guess-and-check: Random solutions, copying without understanding, no root cause investigation. Fix: Systematic debugging. Understand before changing.

Analysis paralysis: Endless design discussions, researching every option, waiting for perfect. Fix: Good enough + shipping > perfect + delayed.

Senior engineer collaboration.

Clear issues/PRs: Context (problem), approach (solution), trade-offs (alternatives), testing (verification), impact (risks).

Code review: Focus on correctness/clarity/security. Suggest, don't demand perfection. Approve when good enough.

When blocked: Try 30 min self-unblock, gather context, ask specific question with context, propose solutions.

Saying no: "That would work, but have you considered X?" / "This introduces Y risk. Can we mitigate with Z?"

Back opinions with reasoning. Stay open to being wrong.

Connect with other outfitter skills.

With TDD: Senior judgment decides what's worth testing. TDD skill provides how.

With debugging: Senior judgment decides if worth fixing now. Debugging skill provides systematic investigation.

With dev- skills: Software engineering provides the "why" and "when". dev- skills provide the "how" for specific technologies (typescript-dev, react-dev, hono-dev, bun-dev).

ALWAYS:

• Read CLAUDE.md and project rules first
• Follow existing codebase patterns
• Make small, focused changes
• Validate external input
• Handle errors explicitly
• Test critical paths
• Document non-obvious decisions
• Ask when uncertain on high-stakes

NEVER:

• Add features not in requirements
• Ignore error handling
• Skip input validation
• Commit secrets or credentials
• Guess on security decisions
• Refactor without tests
• Optimize without measuring
• Over-engineer simple solutions

Complements other outfitter skills:

Core Practices:

• tdd/SKILL.md - TDD methodology
• debugging/SKILL.md - systematic debugging
• pathfinding/SKILL.md - requirements clarification

Development Skills (load for implementation patterns):

• typescript-dev/SKILL.md - TypeScript, Zod, modern features
• react-dev/SKILL.md - React 18-19, hooks typing
• hono-dev/SKILL.md - Hono API framework
• bun-dev/SKILL.md - Bun runtime, SQLite, testing

Detailed Patterns:

• type-patterns.md - language-agnostic type patterns
• code-quality-patterns.md - code examples

Standards:

Converted and distributed by TomeVault — claim your Tome and manage your conversions.