PR code review that surfaces decay risks, design smells, and maintainability issues with concrete Symptom → Source → Consequence → Remedy findings, drawing on twelve classic engineering books. Triggers when: user asks to review code, check a PR, shares a diff or pastes code asking "does this look right?" / "any issues here?" / "ready to merge?", or asks for feedback on a function, class, or file. Also triggers when user mentions: code smells / refactoring / clean architecture / DDD / SOLID principles / Hyrum's Law / deep modules / tactical programming / conceptual integrity / Brooks's Law / Mythical Man-Month / second system effect. Do NOT trigger for: questions about how to write code from scratch, language syntax questions, or framework/tool questions where no existing code is shared.
Cut a brooks-lint release: set the version in package.json, propagate it across all four plugin manifests and every version-bearing text file (README badges, docs site metadata), write the CHANGELOG entry, validate, then commit, push, tag, and publish the GitHub release. Triggers when the maintainer asks to "release", "cut a release", "ship a new version", or "bump and publish" brooks-lint. Do NOT trigger for: propagating an already-decided version without releasing (use `npm run bump` directly), CHANGELOG edits alone, or questions about the release process that don't ask to perform it.
Land the winning experiment from an evo run as a clean, mergeable change -- open a PR when the repo has a remote, otherwise merge into the working branch. Distills the best-scoring experiment down to the minimal diff that reproduces its behaviour, shaped for the qualities a maintainer merges on (scope discipline, test integrity, style adherence), then attaches an advisory mergeability report. Use when the user invokes /evo:ship, asks to land/merge/ship the best result, or wants to turn a finished optimization into a pull request.
Land the winning experiment from an evo run as a clean, mergeable change -- open a PR when the repo has a remote, otherwise merge into the working branch. Distills the best-scoring experiment down to the minimal diff that reproduces its behaviour, shaped for the qualities a maintainer merges on (scope discipline, test integrity, style adherence), then attaches an advisory mergeability report. Use when the user invokes /evo:ship, asks to land/merge/ship the best result, or wants to turn a finished optimization into a pull request.
Turn a skill's recommendations into real, executed actions — open the tickets, file the issues, post the updates — safely: dry-run preview, risk-classified, approval-gated, then recorded back to the brain. Use when asked to act on a plan, file tickets from a checklist, create issues from a PRD, execute the recommended next steps, or wire a skill's output into GitHub/Linear/Slack. Produces a dry-run actions plan with per-action risk, executes only after approval via the connected action MCP, and logs what was done. Nothing acts silently.
Manages Git workflows including branching, commits, and pull requests. Use when working with Git, creating commits, opening PRs, managing branches, resolving conflicts, or when asked about version control best practices.
Pre-launch and pre-commit audit for vibe coding projects. Use when asked to check whether a project is ready to ship, deploy, merge, or commit, especially for common AI-built app mistakes: broken project structure, committed secrets or cache files, environment variable hygiene, database migrations, ORM/schema drift, unsafe raw SQL, unused legacy code, dead routes/components, weak auth, missing tests, build failures, and deployment footguns.
Build a card game: card data, deck/hand/discard zones, draw/shuffle/reshuffle, a turn structure, costs, and effect resolution. Use for a deckbuilder, TCG/CCG, or roguelike deckbuilder.
Build branching dialogue and narrative — a node/choice graph with conditions, variables, and localization hooks — and choose between authoring tools Ink and Yarn Spinner or a custom data-driven runner. Engine-neutral. Use when the user mentions dialogue system, branching dialogue, conversation tree, choices, Ink (.ink), Yarn Spinner (.yarn), or NPC dialogue.
Build a first-person shooter: move+mouse-look controller, hitscan or projectile shooting, weapons, health, and enemy AI. Use for an FPS, or tuning aim feel, time-to-kill, recoil, or spread.
Design NPC and enemy decision-making with finite state machines, behavior trees, steering behaviors, and A* pathfinding — engine-neutral algorithms that pair with the detected engine's navigation API. Use when building enemy AI, an FSM or behavior tree, steering/flocking, or pathfinding, or when the user mentions state machine, behavior tree, blackboard, A*, navmesh, seek, or patrol/chase.
Design and build playable levels — the blockout/whitebox-to-playable workflow, player metrics and grid layout, pacing and flow (tension/rest curve), gating and the critical path, and encounter design. Engine-neutral practice. Use when the user mentions level design, blockout/whitebox/greybox, level layout, level pacing, encounter design, or the critical path through a level.
Build a 2D platformer: run/jump control with coyote time, jump buffering, and variable jump height, plus tiled levels and hazards. Use for a platformer or Mario/Celeste-like, or tuning jump feel.
Generate game content procedurally — seeded deterministic RNG, value/Perlin/ Simplex noise for terrain and heightmaps, grid dungeon generation (rooms + corridors, BSP, random walk), and weighted loot/drop tables. Engine-neutral algorithms. Use when the user mentions procedural generation, perlin/simplex noise, random seed, dungeon generator, heightmap/terrain, or loot tables.
Build a puzzle game: grid/board state, move input, rule-based resolution (match-3 cascades, sokoban pushes, tile logic), scoring, and undo. Use for a match-3, sokoban, or grid-logic puzzle.
Build a roguelike: turn-based grid movement, procedural dungeons, permadeath, field-of-view, and loot tables. Use for a roguelike/roguelite or turn-based grid dungeon crawler with procedural levels.
Build an RPG: stats and leveling, inventory and equipment, quests, branching dialogue, save/load, and combat. Use for an RPG/JRPG, or designing stat, inventory, quest, or combat systems.
Design save/load for game state — choosing what to serialize, file formats, save slots, atomic crash-safe writes, schema versioning and migration, and autosave. Engine-neutral. Use when the user mentions save system, save/load, game state persistence, save slots, autosave, save file corruption, or migrating old saves to a new version.
Build a survival-crafting game: resource gathering, inventory, crafting and a tech tree, needs (hunger/thirst/temperature), and base building. Use for a survival or crafting/base-building game.
Build a tower defense: enemies pathing along lanes, wave spawning, towers that auto-target and fire, an economy, and lives. Use for a tower-defense/wave-defense game, or balancing waves and economy.
Build a visual novel: a branching script, character and background display, a text box with choices, save/load, backlog, and skip/auto. Use for a VN, dating sim, or branching story game.
Create an offline HTML explanation of a code change (diff, PR, branch) or of a topic, system, or question. Use when a visual walkthrough document is requested.
hyhmrright/brooks-lint1.5k
