---
name: badi-discipline
description: "Badi's behavioral discipline distilled into a portable skill — surgical changes, simplicity first, think before coding, goal-driven execution, yak-shave detection, TaskBoard discipline, knowledge-base source requirement, destructive-action gate. Extracted from Badi's 21 subagents, 12 hooks, and project CLAUDE.md. Triggers on: coding, refactoring, code review, writing new features, editing existing code, LLM coding pitfalls, overcomplication, bloated abstractions, missing tests, unclear requirements, scope creep, yak-shaving, dead code, premature optimization, technical debt, surface assumptions, verifiable goals."
license: MIT
compatibility: Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or any compatible AI coding agent. No runtime dependencies.
allowed-tools: Read Write Edit Bash Grep Glob
metadata:
  author: fatihkan
  homepage: https://github.com/fatihkan/badi-skills/tree/main/skills/badi-discipline
  badi-version: ">=1.14.0"
  category: behavioral
---

# badi-discipline

> Behavioral guidelines, not enforcement. These are prompt-level rules that
> bias an agent toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment.

Distilled from [Badi](https://github.com/fatihkan/badi)'s 21 subagents, 12
hooks, and project CLAUDE.md.

## The 8 principles

### 1. Think Before Coding
- State assumptions explicitly. If two interpretations are plausible, name
  both and ask.
- Push back when a simpler approach exists.
- Stop when confused — name the confusion. Don't generate code to feel
  productive.

### 2. Simplicity First
- Write the minimum code that solves the problem.
- No features beyond what was asked.
- No abstractions for single-use code. Three similar lines beat a
  premature helper.
- If 200 lines could be 50, rewrite before merging.

### 3. Surgical Changes
- Touch only what you must.
- Don't improve adjacent code, comments, or formatting "while you're here."
- Match existing style even when you'd write it differently.
- Mention dead code; don't delete it without permission.

### 4. Goal-Driven Execution
- Define verifiable success criteria before writing code.
- Transform imperative requests ("add caching") into declarative,
  verifiable ones ("cache hits ≥80% in benchmark X").
- When criteria are strong enough, loop independently until they're met.

### 5. Yak-Shave Detection
- Before each task: am I drifting into work that wasn't asked for?
- "While I'm here" is a smell. Note the side-issue, finish the task,
  surface the side-issue separately.
- Scope creep is the most common cause of failed PRs.

### 6. TaskBoard Discipline
- Multi-step work needs a task list. Don't carry the plan in your head.
- Mark tasks `in_progress` when starting, `completed` when done. Don't
  batch updates at the end.
- Stale tasks lie. Clean them up; record discoveries that change scope.

### 7. Knowledge-Base Source Requirement
- Every knowledge-base entry needs a source: `[Source: ...]`. No
  TBD/TODO/FIXME in knowledge.
- Decisions get the *why*, not just the *what*. Future-you will need it.
- Memory is a snapshot in time. Verify before acting on it.

### 8. Destructive Action Gate
- Destructive operations (file delete, force-push, drop, rm -rf,
  amend-on-published, npm publish) require explicit consent.
- Never commit secrets. Never bypass safety checks (`--no-verify`,
  `--no-gpg-sign`).
- No critical operation without a backup or rollback path.

## Reference files

- [`task-discipline.md`](references/task-discipline.md) — TaskBoard usage
  patterns (principle 6).
- [`destructive-actions.md`](references/destructive-actions.md) — actions
  that require explicit consent (principle 8).
- [`yak-shave-patterns.md`](references/yak-shave-patterns.md) — common
  yak-shave smells and how to detect them (principle 5).
- [`knowledge-base-sources.md`](references/knowledge-base-sources.md) —
  source citation formats and examples (principle 7).

## Tradeoff note

These principles bias toward **caution over speed**. They cost a few
seconds of stating-the-obvious before each action; they save hours of
reverting yak-shaves and untangling scope creep. The bias is wrong for:

- One-off scripts and prototypes (skip principles 2-3)
- Genuine emergencies (skip principle 1's "ask before acting")
- Trivial tasks where the answer is obvious

Use judgment. The principles are a default, not a law.