staff-engineer

Ownership and dependency rules for keeping features, shared code, and infrastructure separate in any codebase. Use when adding modules, moving code, adding imports across areas, or when the lifecycle gate reports a boundary violation.

Rules for handling secrets, live data, destructive actions, cleanup scripts, and backups. Use whenever a task touches environment files, credentials, databases, uploads, backups, or anything that deletes, resets, or bulk-changes data.

Interview the operator about a requested change until every design branch is settled, then record a plain-language brief with the toolkit. Use before building any feature, workflow, or surface change whose outcome, scope, or acceptance is not already obvious.

Write the plain-language handoff that asks the operator for approval to save a finished, verified change. Use at the end of every concern after lifecycle and full verification pass, and whenever reporting progress to a non-technical operator.

Install, configure, upgrade, or remove the staff-engineer toolkit in a project. Use when an operator asks to set up, update, or remove the toolkit, or when doctor reports the toolkit as missing or misconfigured.

Four-lens cleanup review (Reuse, Quality, Efficiency, Altitude) of an accepted change before it is saved. Use only after the operator accepted the preview and the session is finalizing; it reduces duplication, complexity, waste, and wrong-depth fixes, then identifies documentation impact.

Senior-engineer quality rules for implementation, refactoring, architecture, review, tests, and debugging in any language. Use while building or changing code, and when reviewing a diff for design quality.

Write a short specification and a checkbox plan before executing a large concern, get the operator's agreement in plain language, and keep the plan updated task by task. Use when a change touches more than two areas, needs new data shapes, or will take more than a day.

The operating contract for an AI agent maintaining software on behalf of an operator who may not be technical. Use at the start of every coding task and whenever deciding what to do next; it sequences the other skills (grill-me, solid, simplify, handoff, data-safety, spec-and-plan) and the guarded toolkit commands.

Visual and workflow finish standard for any user-facing surface (web screens, desktop or mobile UI, CLI output, generated documents). Use when designing, building, reviewing, or finishing anything a person sees or interacts with, and run its finalize audit before asking for approval on UI work.