universal-patterns

Universal Development Patterns

Overview

Language-agnostic development patterns and best practices applicable across all technology stacks.

The deep catalog lives next door — read it for any real design decision

This file is the quick reference. It carries enough to keep everyday code honest. It is deliberately shallow on architecture, and it contains none of the 22 GoF design patterns.

For anything beyond a reminder — choosing a style, comparing two, or picking a design pattern — read the architecture skill's index, then follow where it routes you:

<dev-plugin-root>/skills/architecture/SKILL.md

Locate it relative to this plugin's root, which covers both the installed-cache and local-source layouts:

ls "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/architecture/SKILL.md" 2>/dev/null \
  || ls "$(dirname "$(dirname "$(pwd)")")"/plugins/dev/skills/architecture/SKILL.md 2>/dev/null

That index routes in two steps: altitude first (is this about system shape or class collaboration), then the specific file. What it covers, none of which is below:

Tier	Files	Contents
Architectural styles	references/styles/*.md	layered, hexagonal (ports and adapters), clean, modular monolith, microservices, event-driven, CQRS + event sourcing
GoF categories	references/{creational,structural,behavioral}.md	the shared framing for each family
GoF patterns	references/patterns/*.md	all 22, with TypeScript, trade-offs, and when not to use each
Selection	references/selection.md	how to choose, overuse smells, and where TypeScript already gives you the pattern free

Answer architecture questions from those files: they carry the trade-offs and failure modes that decide whether a choice is right.

Code Organization Principles

Single Responsibility

Each module/function should do ONE thing well.

// BAD: Multiple responsibilities
function processUser(user) {
  validateUser(user);
  saveToDatabase(user);
  sendEmail(user);
  logAnalytics(user);
}

// GOOD: Single responsibility
function validateUser(user) { /* validation only */ }
function saveUser(user) { /* persistence only */ }
function notifyUser(user) { /* notification only */ }