Theater Code Detection

When to Use This Skill

Trigger Conditions:

• Before merging AI-generated code into main branch
• When code review reveals suspiciously complete implementations
• After detecting inconsistencies between documentation and behavior
• As pre-deployment quality gate for critical systems
• When integrating third-party or unfamiliar code
• During security audits to identify fake security measures

Situations Requiring Theater Detection:

• Code that compiles but doesn't execute meaningful logic
• Functions with proper signatures but no-op implementations
• Tests that always pass regardless of code changes
• Security checks that can be bypassed trivially
• Error handling that catches but doesn't handle errors
• Mock implementations accidentally left in production code