Spike · petekp Run a spike — a timeboxed, deliberately disposable experiment whose only job is to answer the unknowns in a task before anyone commits to a real implementation. Use whenever the user says "spike", "spike this", "let's spike it", "throwaway", "proof of concept", "POC", "quick and dirty", "just to see if it works", "prototype it", "tracer bullet", or "hack something together". Also use — even without those words — when the user is weighing whether an approach is viable, asks "would this even work", "can we do X with Y", "how hard would this be", "is this fast enough", "how many places does this touch", or is about to start a large effort whose shape depends on a fact nobody has checked yet. Prefer this over building the real thing when the honest answer to "do we know this will work?" is no.
