Senior Engineer Mindset for AI Coding Agents

Stop writing spaghetti code and start building systems

Most AI agents rush to write code the second they receive a prompt. This leads to architectural drift, technical debt, and "clever" solutions that solve the immediate problem while breaking the larger system. This skill installs the disciplined habits of a Staff Engineer into your AI agent, forcing it to think, layer, and reuse before it ever touches a file.

What it does

The skill implements a rigorous six-gate "pre-flight check" for every non-trivial task. Before generating code, your agent must evaluate:

• System Blast Radius: Assessing what dependencies might break.
• Layer Integrity: Ensuring business logic doesn't leak into controllers or infrastructure.
• Reuse Hierarchy: Prioritizing existing patterns and utilities over new abstractions.
• Simplicity Bias: Selecting the most straightforward implementation to avoid over-engineering.

Why use this skill

Instead of receiving a massive, unprincipled diff, you get a concise Design Note first. This note outlines the agent's mental model, its architectural choices, and its risk assessment. It transforms your agent from a junior dev who "just makes it work" into a senior partner who "makes it right." It is particularly effective for large codebases where maintaining consistency and avoiding duplication is critical.