a-philosophy-of-software-design

Applies proven design rules to make your code simpler and easier to work with.

Installation

Run `npx skills add "https://github.com/ciembor/agent-rules-books" --skill "a-philosophy-of-software-design"` to install this skill, then follow its SKILL.md instructions for my next request.

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, or any agent that can run commands.

SKILL.mdShow the author's original SKILL.md

---
name: a-philosophy-of-software-design
description: Apply John Ousterhout-inspired software design rules when reducing complexity, designing module boundaries, or reviewing APIs and abstractions.
license: MIT
---

# A Philosophy of Software Design Skill

Use this skill when a task involves module design, API design, information hiding, abstraction depth, cognitive load, or refactoring shallow interfaces.

Before making design or code decisions, read and apply [a-philosophy-of-software-design.mini.md](a-philosophy-of-software-design.mini.md). Use [a-philosophy-of-software-design.md](a-philosophy-of-software-design.md) only as a deeper reference when the mini rules are not enough for the current design tradeoff.

Ships with 3 supporting files:

a-philosophy-of-software-design.md
a-philosophy-of-software-design.mini.md
a-philosophy-of-software-design.nano.md

Mirrored from the author's public source. Install counts from the open skills registry.