vac-optimizer/.agents/skills/codebase-design/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
codebase-design	Shared vocabulary for designing deep modules. Use when the user wants to design or improve a module's interface, find deepening opportunities, decide where a seam goes, make code more testable or AI-navigable, or when another skill needs the deep-module vocabulary.

Codebase Design

Design deep modules: a lot of behaviour behind a small interface, placed at a clean seam, testable through that interface. Use this language and these principles wherever code is being designed or restructured. The aim is leverage for callers, locality for maintainers, and testability for everyone.

Glossary

Use these concepts to explain the design, while preserving the repository's actual names and domain vocabulary. A component, service, or API can be the module or interface under discussion; explain the distinction when it matters instead of banning familiar terms.

Module — anything with an interface and an implementation: a function, component, service, class, package, or tier-spanning slice.

Interface — everything a caller must know: signatures, invariants, ordering, errors, configuration, and relevant performance characteristics. An API signature alone may describe only part of that contract.

Implementation — what's inside a module, its body of code. Distinct from Adapter: a thing can be a small adapter with a large implementation (a Postgres repo) or a large adapter with a small implementation (an in-memory fake). Reach for "adapter" when the seam is the topic; "implementation" otherwise.

Depth — leverage at the interface: the amount of behaviour a caller (or test) can exercise per unit of interface they have to learn. A module is deep when a large amount of behaviour sits behind a small interface, shallow when the interface is nearly as complex as the implementation.

Seam (Michael Feathers) — a place where behavior can be varied without editing that place. Distinguish a test or substitution seam from a domain or deployment boundary when the difference affects the design.

Adapter — a concrete thing that satisfies an interface at a seam. Describes role (what slot it fills), not substance (what's inside).

Leverage — what callers get from depth: more capability per unit of interface they learn. One implementation pays back across N call sites and M tests.

Locality — what maintainers get from depth: change, bugs, knowledge, and verification concentrate in one place rather than spreading across callers. Fix once, fixed everywhere.

Deep vs shallow

Deep module = small interface + lots of implementation:

┌─────────────────────┐
│   Small Interface   │  ← Few methods, simple params
├─────────────────────┤
│                     │
│  Deep Implementation│  ← Complex logic hidden
│                     │
└─────────────────────┘

Shallow module = large interface + little implementation (avoid):

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│       Large Interface           │  ← Many methods, complex params
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│  Thin Implementation            │  ← Just passes through
└─────────────────────────────────┘

When designing an interface, ask:

• Can I reduce the number of methods?
• Can I simplify the parameters?
• Can I hide more complexity inside?

Principles

• Depth is a property of the interface, not the implementation. A deep module can be internally composed of small, mockable, swappable parts — they just aren't part of the interface. A module can have internal seams (private to its implementation, used by its own tests) as well as the external seam at its interface.
• The deletion test. Imagine deleting the module. If complexity vanishes, it was a pass-through. If complexity reappears across N callers, it was earning its keep.
• Prefer behavior-level test surfaces. Test through the relevant contract, while retaining focused checks for internal algorithms or integration invariants when they catch failures the higher interface does not.
• Justify seams by a current need. Test isolation, ownership, external integration, or real variation may justify a boundary even with one runtime implementation. Do not add an adapter merely to satisfy a count, or a speculative abstraction with no concrete benefit.

Designing for testability

Good interfaces make testing natural:

1. Accept dependencies, don't create them.

   // Testable
   function processOrder(order, paymentGateway) {}
   
   // Hard to test
   function processOrder(order) {
     const gateway = new StripeGateway();
   }
   

2. Prefer pure results for calculations; keep necessary effects explicit.

   // Testable
   function calculateDiscount(cart): Discount {}
   
   // Hard to test
   function applyDiscount(cart): void {
     cart.total -= discount;
   }
   

3. Small surface area. Fewer methods = fewer tests needed. Fewer params = simpler test setup.

Relationships

• A Module has exactly one Interface (the surface it presents to callers and tests).
• Depth is a property of a Module, measured against its Interface.
• A Seam is where a Module's Interface lives.
• An Adapter sits at a Seam and satisfies the Interface.
• Depth produces Leverage for callers and Locality for maintainers.

Rejected framings

• Depth as ratio of implementation-lines to interface-lines (Ousterhout): rewards padding the implementation. We use depth-as-leverage instead.
• "Interface" as the TypeScript interface keyword or a class's public methods: too narrow — interface here includes every fact a caller must know.
• Unqualified boundaries: clarify whether a boundary concerns tests, domain ownership, deployment, or caller contracts when that distinction matters.

Going deeper

• Deepening a cluster given its dependencies — see DEEPENING.md: dependency categories, seam discipline, and replace-don't-layer testing.
• Exploring alternative interfaces — see DESIGN-IT-TWICE.md: spin up parallel sub-agents to design the interface several radically different ways, then compare on depth, locality, and seam placement.