RICK-ORPHEN
- 10 skills
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- 10 hours ago last updated
- ▌ Diagnose First · rick-orphen bundleInvestigate a production symptom down to a named root cause BEFORE writing any fix. Use when: it does not get fixed, the same error keeps coming back, a previous fix did not change the observed behaviour, or you are about to jump on the first plausible cause. Do NOT use when: what you need is to re-read the product design.
- ▌ Output Contracts · rick-orphen bundleThe reference standard for deciding whether something may be shipped, and whether a command may be run. Returns PASS / DEGRADED / FAIL at three gates: entry, mid-work (destructive and irreversible operations), and exit. Use when: you want a fixed yardstick for 'is this safe to run' or 'is this ready to hand over'. Do NOT use when: you need the procedure for a specific change — this ships criteria, not steps.
- ▌ Sandbox Boundary · rick-orphen bundleYour execution sandbox and the user's machine are two different filesystems, and the same file has a different absolute path in each. Catch, mechanically, everything that breaks when an operation crosses that boundary — including when you add a new working directory. Use when: paths or file locations might disagree between environments. Do NOT use when: the question is how to test in their environment, or how to write the script you hand over.
- ▌ State Vs Reality · rick-orphen bundleThe discipline of reconciling the value that represents state with what the system actually does. Use when: the display or the record looks right but the real thing differs, or the reverse. Do NOT use when: you are tracing the root cause of a live symptom, or the problem is a boundary between two machines.
- ▌ Design Before Fix · rick-orphenBefore fixing a symptom, read end to end how the feature is designed to reach the user, and pin that down. Use when: the change touches product boundaries, credentials, permissions, distribution or billing — or when you are about to conclude 'this cannot work in this environment'. Do NOT use when: you are investigating the root cause of a live symptom; that is a different discipline.
- ▌ Tool Contract First · rick-orphenRead the tool's contract before you use it, and again before you attempt a second fix for the same bug. Never judge by a proxy signal — exit codes, headers, counts — without first calibrating it against known-correct cases. Use when: a tool behaves differently from what you assumed. Do NOT use when: what you actually need is to re-read the product design.
- ▌ Independent Verifier · rick-orphenRun a single top-tier model as an independent, read-only reviewer and get findings back — no heavy ceremony. Works as a verifier (deliverable + acceptance criteria → verdict) and as an advisor (a question → an opinion with its grounds). Use when: someone asks for the sharpest single read, explicitly without a committee. Do NOT use when: the answer is genuinely contested and you need several models to argue it out. Never fires automatically.
- ▌ Self Service Delivery · rick-orphenDeliver a change to production yourself instead of handing steps to the requester. Use when: work has to actually land — push/PR, database migration, deploy, production data fix, config change — or when you are about to write 'please run this' / 'paste this SQL' / 'double-click this'. Do NOT use when: you are still investigating a root cause.
- ▌ Handoff Script Hygiene · rick-orphenThe discipline for writing a script someone else will run, and for the moment you are about to ask them to run it again. A ledger of 19 incidents from making one person redo the same work five times, plus the checks that kill each one mechanically. Use when: you are about to borrow someone's hands. Do NOT use when: you can finish it yourself.
- ▌ Verify In The Target Environment · rick-orphenThe discipline of actually running a tool, or a checker you are about to wire into a gate, IN THE ENVIRONMENT THAT WILL RECEIVE IT, before you hand it over. Passing on your machine is not proof that it passes on theirs. Use when: you want to confirm against production-equivalent before distributing, or you are about to gate on a checker that has never succeeded. Do NOT use when: the question is how to write the script, or how to read a tool's contract.