coding-guidelines
This Claude Code skill provides behavioral guidelines for reducing common LLM coding mistakes during implementation tasks, code changes, refactoring, bug fixes, and feature development. It emphasizes thinking before coding, prioritizing simplicity, making surgical edits, and defining verifiable success criteria. Use this skill when writing or modifying code to maintain code quality and alignment with requirements.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tech-leads-club/agent-skills /tmp/coding-guidelines && cp -r /tmp/coding-guidelines/packages/skills-catalog/skills/(development)/coding-guidelines ~/.claude/skills/coding-guidelinesSKILL.md
# Coding Guidelines
Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. These principles bias toward caution over speed—for trivial tasks, use judgment.
## 1. Think Before Coding
**Don't assume. Don't hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.**
Before implementing:
- State assumptions explicitly. If uncertain, ask.
- If multiple interpretations exist, present them—don't pick silently.
- If a simpler approach exists, say so. Push back when warranted.
- If something is unclear, stop. Name what's confusing. Ask.
- Disagree honestly. If the user's approach seems wrong, say so—don't be sycophantic.
## 2. Simplicity First
**Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.**
- No features beyond what was asked.
- No abstractions for single-use code.
- No "flexibility" or "configurability" that wasn't requested.
- No error handling for impossible scenarios.
- If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.
Ask yourself: "Would a senior engineer say this is overcomplicated?" If yes, simplify.
## 3. Surgical Changes
**Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.**
When editing existing code:
- Don't "improve" adjacent code, comments, or formatting.
- Don't refactor things that aren't broken.
- Match existing style, even if you'd do it differently.
- If you notice unrelated dead code, mention it—don't delete it.
When your changes create orphans:
- Remove imports/variables/functions that YOUR changes made unused.
- Don't remove pre-existing dead code unless asked.
**The test:** Every changed line should trace directly to the user's request.
## 4. Goal-Driven Execution
**Define success criteria. Loop until verified.**
Transform tasks into verifiable goals:
- "Add validation" → "Write tests for invalid inputs, then make them pass"
- "Fix the bug" → "Write a test that reproduces it, then make it pass"
- "Refactor X" → "Ensure tests pass before and after"
For multi-step tasks, state a brief plan:
```
1. [Step] → verify: [check]
2. [Step] → verify: [check]
3. [Step] → verify: [check]
```
Strong success criteria let you loop independently. Weak criteria ("make it work") require constant clarification.Finds duplicate business logic spread across multiple components and suggests consolidation. Use when asking "where is this logic duplicated?", "find common code between services", "what can be consolidated?", "detect shared domain logic", or analyzing component overlap before refactoring. Do NOT use for code-level duplication detection (use linters) or dependency analysis (use coupling-analysis).
Detects misplaced classes and fixes component hierarchy problems — finds code that should belong inside a component but sits at the root level. Use when asking "clean up component structure", "find orphaned classes", "fix module hierarchy", "flatten nested components", or analyzing why namespaces have misplaced code. Do NOT use for dependency analysis (use coupling-analysis) or domain grouping (use domain-identification-grouping).
Maps architectural components in a codebase and measures their size to identify what should be extracted first. Use when asking "how big is each module?", "what components do I have?", "which service is too large?", "analyze codebase structure", "size my monolith", or planning where to start decomposing. Do NOT use for runtime performance sizing or infrastructure capacity planning.
Analyzes coupling between modules using the three-dimensional model (strength, distance, volatility) from "Balancing Coupling in Software Design". Use when asking "are these modules too coupled?", "show me dependencies", "analyze integration quality", "which modules should I decouple?", "coupling report", or evaluating architectural health. Do NOT use for domain boundary analysis (use domain-analysis) or component sizing (use component-identification-sizing).
Creates step-by-step decomposition plans and migration roadmaps for breaking apart monolithic applications. Use when asking "what order should I extract services?", "plan my migration", "create a decomposition roadmap", "prioritize what to split", "monolith to microservices strategy", or tracking decomposition progress. Do NOT use for domain analysis (use domain-analysis) or component sizing (use component-identification-sizing).
Maps business domains and suggests service boundaries in any codebase using DDD Strategic Design. Use when asking "what are the domains in this codebase?", "where should I draw service boundaries?", "identify bounded contexts", "classify subdomains", "DDD analysis", or analyzing domain cohesion. Do NOT use for grouping existing components into domains (use domain-identification-grouping) or dependency analysis (use coupling-analysis).
Groups existing components into logical business domains to plan service-based architecture. Use when asking "which components belong together?", "group these into services", "organize by domain", "component-to-domain mapping", or planning service extraction from an existing codebase. Do NOT use for identifying new domains from scratch (use domain-analysis) or analyzing coupling (use coupling-analysis).
AI frontend specialist and design consultant that guides users through a structured discovery process before generating any code. Collects visual references, design tokens, typography, icons, layout preferences, and brand guidelines to ensure the final output matches the user's vision with high fidelity. Use when the user asks to build, design, create, or improve any frontend interface — websites, landing pages, dashboards, components, apps, emails, forms, modals, or any UI element. Also triggers on "build me a UI", "design a page", "create a component", "improve this layout", "make this look better", "frontend", "interface", "redesign", or when the user provides mockups, screenshots, or design references. Do NOT use for backend logic, API design, database schemas, or non-visual code tasks.