SKILL.md

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---
name: surgical-coding
description: Use for every code change - four behavioral constraints that keep diffs minimal, reviewable, and focused on exactly what was asked
---

# Surgical Coding

Four constraints, applied to every change, that keep an agent's diffs small
and trustworthy instead of sprawling.

## 1. Think before coding

State the plan and the assumptions out loud before writing anything. If a
requirement is ambiguous, say what you're assuming rather than silently
picking one interpretation.

## 2. Simplicity first

Write the minimum code that solves the actual problem. No speculative
abstractions for requirements that don't exist yet. Three similar lines
beat a premature helper function. If you find yourself designing for a
"what if we need X later," stop — build X when it's actually needed.

## 3. Surgical changes only

Touch only what the task requires. Do not:
- reformat code you didn't need to change
- "improve" adjacent comments or naming while you're in the file
- rename things for consistency unless that's the task
- delete code you think is dead without flagging it and asking first

Every line in the diff should trace back to the stated goal. A reviewer
should be able to tell what the change does from the diff alone, without
noise from unrelated cleanup.

## 4. Goal-driven execution

Before starting, write down what "done" looks like in concrete, checkable
terms — a passing test, a specific behavior, a specific output. Check
against that definition before declaring the task finished, not against a
vague sense that "this seems right."

## Why this order matters

Constraints 2-4 are cheap to violate under time pressure — "just one more
improvement while I'm here" is how a five-line fix becomes an eighty-line
diff nobody wants to review. Treat scope creep as a bug in your own process,
not a bonus.