Coding Guardrails

Enforce simplicity-first development and prevent complexity accumulation. This skill activates automatically during coding tasks to validate decisions against ThemeGPT's development philosophy.

Required Reading

Before any coding task, mentally reference:

• CONSTITUTION.md: Philosophical principles (Simplicity > Privacy > Accessibility)
• DIRECTIVES.md: Enforcement rules with specific limits
• doc/guard/SYNTHAI_PROJECT_ARCHAEOLOGY.md: Historical lessons on over-engineering

Complexity Budget Enforcement

Hard Limits (Block if Exceeded)

Metric	Limit	Action
Single file	200 lines	Pause and reassess
Feature total	500 lines	Require architectural review
Configuration files	50 lines total	Justify why hard-coding fails
Abstract classes	0	Require 3+ concrete implementations first
Test files	< 50% of implementation	Review necessity

Pre-Implementation Checklist

Before writing any code, answer:

1. Scale Check: Does this complexity match the problem scale?
2. Abstraction Check: Is there proven duplication (3+ occurrences)?
3. Pattern Check: Would this pattern be appropriate for a browser extension?
4. Configuration Check: Can this value be hard-coded instead?

If any answer suggests simpler alternatives, use them.

Anti-Pattern Recognition

Actively flag and prevent these patterns from SynthAI archaeology:

Pattern 1: Specification Inflation

Warning Signs:

• Specs describe implementation details, not outcomes
• Specification longer than estimated implementation
• Bulleted requirements spawn multiple files

Response: Rewrite to focus on outcomes only. Ask "What problem does this solve?" not "How should it be built?"

Pattern 2: Enterprise Pattern Obsession

Warning Signs:

• Circuit breakers for local tools
• Service registries for < 5 items
• Rollback managers for single-user applications
• Audit logging beyond console output

Response: Remove or justify with concrete scale requirements. Browser extensions don't need enterprise infrastructure.

Pattern 3: Premature Abstraction

Warning Signs:

• Abstract class with 1 implementation
• Interface before concrete use case
• Adapter pattern for single provider
• Factory pattern for single object type

Response: Delete abstraction. Write concrete implementation. Add abstraction only when 3+ duplications exist.

Example:

// BAD: Premature abstraction
abstract class BaseProvider {
  abstract call(input: string): Promise<string>;
}
class OpenAIProvider extends BaseProvider { ... }
// Only one provider exists!

// GOOD: Direct implementation
async function callOpenAI(input: string): Promise<string> {
  return await openai.complete(input);
}

Pattern 4: Configuration Explosion

Warning Signs:

• Config file growing beyond 50 lines
• Environment variables for internal values
• YAML/JSON for hard-codeable constants
• Configuration for "flexibility"

Response: Hard-code by default. Make configurable only when users demonstrably need to change values.

Example:

// BAD: Configuration for hard-codeable value
const config = loadConfig();
const MAX_TOKENS = config.maxTokens ?? 4096;

// GOOD: Hard-coded default
const MAX_TOKENS = 4096;

Pattern 5: Framework Absorption

Warning Signs:

• Domain-specific types in utility modules
• Framework concepts leaking into generic code
• Every module imports domain-specific types

Response: Keep domain frameworks separate. Utilities should have no domain dependencies.

Pattern 6: Test Suite Inflation

Warning Signs:

• Tests approaching implementation size
• Tests per function instead of per behavior
• High coverage on trivial code

Response: Tests < 50% of implementation lines. Test behavior, not implementation. Skip tests for trivial code (getters, simple mappings).

Decision Framework

When principles conflict, apply this priority:

1. Simplicity — Never add complexity beyond what the problem requires
2. Privacy — Never compromise user data protection
3. Accessibility — Never exclude users
4. Brand Integrity — Maintain visual consistency
5. Completeness — No placeholders or incomplete features
6. Performance — Fast, responsive extension

Verification Commands

Run these checks before committing:

# Check for files over 200 lines (warning threshold)
find apps packages -name "*.ts" -o -name "*.tsx" | xargs wc -l | awk '$1 > 200 {print "WARNING:", $0}'

# Check for placeholder content
grep -rE "TODO|FIXME|TBD|XXX|lorem ipsum" --include="*.ts" --include="*.tsx" apps/ packages/

# Check for premature abstractions
grep -rE "abstract class|interface.*Adapter|Registry|Factory" --include="*.ts" apps/ packages/

# Check config file sizes
find . -name "*.json" -o -name "*.yaml" | xargs wc -l | awk '{sum+=$1} END {print "Total config lines:", sum}'

# Check test-to-implementation ratio
echo "Test lines:" && find apps packages -name "*.test.ts" | xargs wc -l 2>/dev/null | tail -1
echo "Impl lines:" && find apps packages -name "*.ts" ! -name "*.test.ts" | xargs wc -l 2>/dev/null | tail -1

Response Protocol

When this skill activates during a coding task:

1. Before Implementation: Run pre-implementation checklist mentally
2. During Implementation: Flag any anti-pattern warning signs immediately
3. Before Committing: Run verification commands
4. If Limits Exceeded: Stop, explain the concern, propose simpler alternative

Key Phrase Triggers

Activate heightened scrutiny when you hear:

• "We might need..."
• "For flexibility..."
• "In case of..."
• "Best practice says..."
• "Enterprise-grade..."
• "Future-proof..."

These phrases often precede unnecessary complexity.

Simplicity Mantra

"Sometimes the best code is the code you don't write." — SynthAI Project Archaeology

When in doubt, implement the minimal solution. Complexity can be added later; removing it is much harder.