zernie Apply a small set of type-driven quality techniques when writing or refactoring code. Each technique has its own reference — the principle, a real before/after from this repo, and the smells to grep for. Read the reference(s) that match the code in front of you; don't apply all five blindly.
When this fires
A request to refactor / clean up / improve / harden / tighten code or an API — or when you're about to write a new module/type/public export and want it right the first time. Not a bug hunt (use /code-review).
The techniques — read the matching reference
| Smell in front of you | Technique | Reference |
|---|---|---|
a magic 0 / "" / -1; the same primitive re-validated at many sites; "x" in obj repeated |
Parse, don't validate | references/parse-dont-validate.md |
a field that's always ""; boolean-flag soup; a sentinel standing in for "absent"; an impossible combo that still compiles |
Make illegal states irrepresentable | references/make-illegal-states-irrepresentable.md |
a switch/if-chain on a union with no exhaustiveness guard |
Exhaustive matching | references/exhaustive-matching.md |
logic tangled with IO (spawn/fetch/fs); a function that's hard to test |
Pure functions + injected seams | references/pure-functions.md |
a public export with a fuzzy shape; a string that means an enum; a leaked internal helper |
Public-API quality | references/public-api-quality.md |
How to apply
- Name the decision out loud before you change the shape — what illegal state it forbids, where the parse boundary sits (the
surface-architecture-decisionsreflex). A quality change the reviewer can't see is churn. - One technique at a time, tests stay green. Change the type, let
tscshow you every call site, fix them, run the tests. Never batch five refactors into one unreviewable diff. - Don't over-abstract (rule-of-three / YAGNI). A tagged union for 3 real variants is good; an abstraction for a difference that doesn't exist yet is the bug this skill is supposed to prevent.
- Prefer the strongest option the DECIDABILITY allows — a type that can't express the bad state beats a runtime check that hopes to catch it; but a runtime guard at a boundary beats nothing when the input is genuinely dynamic.
Guardrails
- Quality only, not correctness. This skill improves shape/design; it does not hunt for bugs — that's
/code-review. - Every change removes a real failure mode. If you can't name the bug the new shape prevents, don't make the change.
- Keep the public surface small. A new
exportis a contract (see the public-API reference); don't widen it to make a refactor convenient.