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Use when creating features, changing behavior, adding components, or making design-affecting implementation choices before editing code.
Install with Codex or Claude Copy this prompt, paste it into Codex, Claude, or another assistant, and let it review the skill page and install it for you.
Based on SOC occupation classification
Use when ingesting, refreshing, listing, searching, or deleting a local corpus with Blackbird code search and `gh blackbird search --fileset`.
Use when reaching for `gh blackbird` (Blackbird code search) for cross-repo lexical, symbol, or semantic search on GitHub — finding callers, ownership, or how systems work without cloning.
Use when creating a GitHub pull request, or when updating an existing PR's title or body so it matches what the code actually does.
Use when authoring or substantially editing a design doc, architecture doc, or subsystem explanation — the "here's what's there and why" companion to an ADR's terse decision record.
Use when creating a repo-tracked multi-agent planning PR for a large project, especially when phases, living docs, parallel agent prompts, and cross-PR coordination are needed.
Use when about to call a library, crate, or framework API you haven't verified, when a dependency's behavior is surprising, when training-data memory might be stale, or when investigating how a dependency actually behaves.
| name | design-before-coding |
| description | Use when creating features, changing behavior, adding components, or making design-affecting implementation choices before editing code. |
Understand the problem and choose an approach before changing files.
Skip for mechanical edits with no behavior or design choice.
For small changes, keep the design to a short paragraph in your own working context. For larger changes, write a plan before editing.
Good designs name the files/components involved, data flow, error handling, validation, and what will prove the work is done.
