The cheapest feature is the one you never build. Scope-guard weighs each proposed feature against its value, its cost, and the branch budget, so only what is earned ships.

Scope Guard

Prevents overengineering by both Claude and human during the brainstorm, plan, and execute workflow. Forces explicit evaluation of every proposed feature against business value, opportunity cost, and branch constraints.

Philosophy

Core Belief: Not all features deserve implementation. Most ideas should be deferred to backlog until proven necessary.

Three Pillars:

1. Worthiness Scoring - Quantify value vs cost before building
2. Opportunity Cost - Compare against existing backlog
3. Branch Discipline - Respect size thresholds