Clean Architecture (hybrid, right-sized)

You already know Clean Architecture, DDD, and SOLID — this skill does not teach them. It pins my expansion of those terms: where my defaults diverge from the textbook, how much architecture a project earns, and how these principles reconcile with deep modules.

The stance: the end goal is code that fits the human brain — maintainable, testable, adaptable — with the principles as steering, never as compliance. Purity loses to pragmatism at every tie-break. Delete before you add.

The gate: tier before pattern

Never recommend a pattern before placing the project in a tier. If the tier is unclear, ask — using this matrix, not free-form questions: