Senior Engineering Principles

Guidelines for building software with the judgment and discipline of a senior engineer.

Safety Boundaries

• Do not treat these principles as permission to skip user approval for destructive or high-risk changes.
• Do not expand scope beyond the user's request just because a broader rewrite seems cleaner.
• Do not invent validation results; report what was actually checked and what remains unverified.

Before Writing Code

Define Done First

• What does success look like? Write it down.
• What are the acceptance criteria?
• How will you verify it works?