compound-engineering

This skill implements Compound Engineering—a development methodology where each unit of work makes subsequent work easier, not harder. Inspired by Every.to's engineering approach.

Core Philosophy

Each unit of engineering work should make subsequent units of work easier—not harder.

Traditional development accumulates technical debt. Every feature adds complexity. Every change increases maintenance burden. Compound engineering inverts this by creating a learning loop where each bug, failed test, or problem-solving insight gets documented and used by future work.

The Compound Engineering Loop

Plan → Work → Review → Compound → (repeat)

1. Plan (40%): Research approaches, synthesize information into detailed implementation plans
2. Work (20%): Execute the plan systematically with continuous validation
3. Review (20%): Evaluate output quality and identify learnings
4. Compound (20%): Feed results back into the system to make the next loop better

80% of compound engineering is in planning and review. 20% is in execution.

Step 1: Plan

Before writing any code, create a comprehensive plan. Good plans start with research:

Research Phase

1. Codebase Analysis: Search for similar patterns, conventions, and prior art in the codebase
2. Commit History: Use git log to understand how related features were built
3. Documentation: Check README, AGENTS.md, and inline documentation
4. External Research: Search for best practices relevant to the problem

Plan Document Structure

Create a plan document (markdown) with:

# Feature: [Name]

## Context
- What problem does this solve?
- Who is affected?
- What's the current behavior vs desired behavior?

## Research Findings
- Similar patterns found in codebase: [list with file links]
- Relevant prior implementations: [commit references]
- Best practices discovered: [external references]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Criterion 1 (testable)
- [ ] Criterion 2 (testable)
- [ ] Criterion 3 (testable)

## Technical Approach
1. Step 1: [specific action]
2. Step 2: [specific action]
3. Step 3: [specific action]

## Code Examples
[Include code snippets that follow existing patterns]

## Testing Strategy
- Unit tests: [what to test]
- Integration tests: [what to test]
- Manual verification: [steps]

## Risks & Mitigations
- Risk 1: [mitigation]
- Risk 2: [mitigation]