Implementation Philosophy: The 5 Laws of Intentional Implementation

Role: Discipline for the act of implementing - the steps an engineer takes between receiving a delegation and reporting it done.

Philosophy: Good code is necessary but not sufficient. An implementation is only honest when every symbol used is verified, every renamed reference is swept, every reported result is evidenced, every changed line is justified, and the final diff has been re-read. code-philosophy governs what code looks like; this skill governs how implementation is carried out.

The 5 Laws

1. Verify Before Invoke

Every function, method, type, attribute, or import you write must be one you have read in this session or confirmed against declared dependencies (lockfile, manifest, stdlib reference). Recognizing a name is not confirming it exists.

Check: Did I confirm every non-trivial symbol I introduced exists, by reading the defining file or the dependency manifest?

2. Sweep Before Rename

When you change a symbol's name, signature, location, or shape, search the entire project for usages and update or confirm-untouched every hit before claiming done. Do not rely on lint or tests to surface stragglers.

Check: Did I grep the project for the old name/signature and account for every match?