name	engineering-excellence
description	Framework-agnostic software engineering standard for AI agents — SDD/TDD workflow, architecture principles, security, performance, accessibility, i18n, SEO, and production readiness. Load when implementing, reviewing, or hardening software in any language or stack.

Engineering Excellence

Engineer software, don't just generate code. This skill is technology-agnostic: the principles apply to any language, framework, or stack. Framework-specific guidance appears only as clearly marked examples.

Always

Follow SDD, then TDD.
Ask for clarification when requirements are incomplete — wait for approval before building.
Build the smallest correct solution, then refactor.
Apply quality gates before considering work complete.
Load the relevant reference documents below based on the current task. Do not load everything — load what the task needs.

References

Load a reference when its concern is in scope for the current task.

Principles & architecture

references/engineering-principles.md — SOLID, DRY, KISS, YAGNI, SoC overview
references/solid.md, references/dry.md, references/kiss.md, references/yagni.md — individual principles
references/architecture.md — modular, cohesive, loosely coupled design
references/technical-debt.md — recording intentional debt

Workflow & quality

references/sdd.md — spec-driven development
references/tdd.md — test-driven development
references/testing.md — testing expectations
references/quality-gates.md — checks required before completion
references/code-review.md — review dimensions
references/engineering-score.md — final quality reporting
references/documentation.md — keeping docs current

Frontend & web

references/interaction.md — frontend UX: cursor, hover/focus/disabled states, semantic HTML, touch targets
references/accessibility.md — WCAG 2.2 AA, keyboard nav, ARIA, and W3C compliance
references/i18n.md — internationalization
references/seo.md — SEO and agentic (AI) discoverability
references/environments.md — environment-aware behavior and indexing
references/performance.md — Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse, and performance as a functional requirement

Delivery & operations

references/security.md — secure defaults, secrets, headers, CSP
references/dependencies.md — justified, maintained dependencies
references/docker.md — reproducible environments
references/ci.md — continuous integration
references/production-readiness.md — the checklist for shipping to production

Frontend guidelines

When generating UI, load references/interaction.md, references/accessibility.md, and — for public-facing surfaces — references/seo.md and references/environments.md.

Templates & examples

templates/ — reusable skeletons (ADR, architecture, OpenSpec, pull request, engineering report)
examples/ — stack-specific illustrations (generic, React, Nuxt, Laravel, Spring, Go). These are examples only; the standard itself stays framework-agnostic.

Engineering Excellence

Always

Follow SDD, then TDD.

Ask for clarification when requirements are incomplete — wait for approval before building.

Build the smallest correct solution, then refactor.

Apply quality gates before considering work complete.

Load the relevant reference documents below based on the current task. Do not load everything — load what the task needs.

References

Load a reference when its concern is in scope for the current task.

Principles & architecture

references/engineering-principles.md — SOLID, DRY, KISS, YAGNI, SoC overview

references/solid.md, references/dry.md, references/kiss.md, references/yagni.md — individual principles

references/architecture.md — modular, cohesive, loosely coupled design

references/technical-debt.md — recording intentional debt

Workflow & quality

references/sdd.md — spec-driven development

references/tdd.md — test-driven development

references/testing.md — testing expectations

references/quality-gates.md — checks required before completion

references/code-review.md — review dimensions

references/engineering-score.md — final quality reporting

references/documentation.md — keeping docs current

Frontend & web

references/interaction.md — frontend UX: cursor, hover/focus/disabled states, semantic HTML, touch targets

references/accessibility.md — WCAG 2.2 AA, keyboard nav, ARIA, and W3C compliance

references/i18n.md — internationalization

references/seo.md — SEO and agentic (AI) discoverability

references/environments.md — environment-aware behavior and indexing

references/performance.md — Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse, and performance as a functional requirement

Delivery & operations

references/security.md — secure defaults, secrets, headers, CSP

references/dependencies.md — justified, maintained dependencies

references/docker.md — reproducible environments

references/ci.md — continuous integration

references/production-readiness.md — the checklist for shipping to production

Frontend guidelines

When generating UI, load references/interaction.md, references/accessibility.md, and — for public-facing surfaces — references/seo.md and references/environments.md.

Templates & examples

templates/ — reusable skeletons (ADR, architecture, OpenSpec, pull request, engineering report)

examples/ — stack-specific illustrations (generic, React, Nuxt, Laravel, Spring, Go). These are examples only; the standard itself stays framework-agnostic.

engineering-excellence