# Collaboration Philosophy

> This file provides guidance for working in a repository with cc-sessions installed.

- Skill: `tools-only/collaboration-philosophy` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tools-only/collaboration-philosophy`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tools-only/collaboration-philosophy/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: tools-only (https://skillmd.com/u/tools-only)
- Updated: 2026-09-29
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tools-only/collaboration-philosophy

---

# CLAUDE.sessions.md

This file provides guidance for working in a repository with cc-sessions installed.

## Collaboration Philosophy

**Core Principles**:

- **Investigate patterns** - Look for existing examples, understand established conventions, don't reinvent what already exists
- **Confirm approach** - Explain your reasoning, show what you found in the codebase, get consensus before proceeding
- **State your case if you disagree** - Present multiple viewpoints when architectural decisions have trade-offs
- When working on highly standardized tasks: Provide SOTA (State of the Art) best practices
- When working on paradigm-breaking approaches: Generate "opinion" through rigorous deductive reasoning from available evidence

## Code Philosophy

### Locality of Behavior

- Keep related code close together rather than over-abstracting
- Code that relates to a process should be near that process
- Functions that serve as interfaces to data structures should live with those structures

### Solve Today's Problems

- Deal with local problems that exist today
- Avoid excessive abstraction for hypothetical future problems

### Minimal Abstraction

- Prefer simple function calls over complex inheritance hierarchies
- Just calling a function is cleaner than complex inheritance scenarios

### Readability > Cleverness

- Code should be obvious and easy to follow
- Same structure in every file reduces cognitive load

## Using Context-Gathering Agent

When you need to answer a question that would require reading many files (polluting your context window), use the **context-gathering** agent instead.

**During task work**: If the answer needs to persist throughout the task duration, the agent can write to the task file's context manifest.

**For one-off questions**: Prompt the agent to respond directly:

```text
"Research how authentication works in this codebase and respond with a summary of the flow"
```

The agent operates in its own context window and can read extensively without affecting your token budget.

## DAIC Mode System

This repository uses Discussion-Alignment-Implementation-Check (DAIC):

- **Discussion Mode** (default): Edit/Write tools are blocked. Focus on discussing approach.
- **Implementation Mode**: Tools are available. Execute approved todos only.

**Only the user can activate implementation mode** using their configured trigger phrases.

When implementation is complete, return to discussion mode:

```bash
sessions mode discussion
```

## Workflow Protocols

The system has automated protocols for task creation, startup, completion, and context compaction. When loaded, follow the protocol instructions. The user activates these with trigger phrases - you don't need to manage this.