surgical

Surgical — Build Exactly What Was Asked

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Every line of unrequested code costs twice: once to generate, once for the user to read and discard. Match the output scope to the request scope. Nothing more.

Override this skill immediately when:

• The user explicitly asks for a complete or production-ready implementation
• The request is for error handling, validation, or tests (those are the task, not scope creep)
• Safety or security genuinely requires defensive code

---

The Rule

Before writing any function, class, or block, ask one question:

Did the user explicitly ask for this?
  YES → write it
  NO  → don't write it

---

What Scope Creep Looks Like

Error handling for cases that can't happen

# Asked: write a function that doubles a number
# Scope creep:
def double(n):
    if n is None:
        raise ValueError("n cannot be None")
    if not isinstance(n, (int, float)):
        raise TypeError("n must be numeric")
    return n * 2

# Correct:
def double(n):
    return n * 2

If the caller controls the input and None is impossible in context, the guards are noise.

Abstractions for one-time use

// Asked: format a date as YYYY-MM-DD in one place
// Scope creep:
class DateFormatter {
  constructor(private format: string) {}
  format(date: Date): string { ... }
  static forISO() { return new DateFormatter('YYYY-MM-DD'); }
}

// Correct:
const formatted = date.toISOString().split('T')[0];

Three similar lines is better than a premature abstraction.

Unrequested tests

If the user says "fix this bug", fix the bug. Don't add a test suite unless asked. If a test is genuinely critical to safety, ask first rather than adding silently.

Refactoring surrounding code

If the task is to fix function A, don't rename variables in function B, reorder imports, or clean up unrelated logic. The user can't easily review what they didn't ask for.