DEVELOPMENT WORKFLOW / Addy Osmani
Constraint-driven development
Records project quality constraints with measured baselines, enforcement commands and reviewable exceptions.
“Establishes a project's quality bar as a written contract and stops agents quietly lowering it. Interviews the user on which dimensions matter, supplies sane default thresholds when they have no number in mind, records everything in CONSTRAINTS.md, and watches the diff for a weakened bar — new @ts-ignore or eslint-disable suppressions, skipped or deleted tests, assertions stripped out, unimplemented stubs, thresholds edited down. Use when no quality bar is written down, when the user says "set up constraints" or "define our standards", when the user wants dimensions they care about — accessibility, web performance, coverage — set up as enforced constraints, when an agent keeps silencing checks or skipping tests to get to green, when you need a coverage or performance threshold and don't know what number to pick, or when an agent writes more code than anyone will read.”
01 / THE REASONING
Why this made the selection.
- Pairs each threshold with a concrete check and separates written policy from scripted enforcement.
- Reviews weakened thresholds, removed assertions and new suppressions, using ratchets when a target number is not established.
02 / THE REVIEW RECORD
What we actually inspected.
Source review has boundaries.
A clear record is more useful than a “safe” badge.
Material inspected
- skills/constraint-driven-development/SKILL.md (complete frontmatter and body)
- https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills/blob/1401c8b8030e023baeebb31781a6653fe8e93026/LICENSE (applicable licence text)
Our findings
- Pairs each threshold with a concrete check and separates written policy from scripted enforcement.
- Reviews weakened thresholds, removed assertions and new suppressions, using ratchets when a target number is not established.
- Writes CONSTRAINTS.md and agent/CI configuration, installs selected tools and runs tests, scanners or browser measurements.
Not established by this review
- Host discovery, task execution and model quality were not tested.
- Referenced helpers, sibling plugins and external service operations were not exhaustively audited or executed.
The review applies to the material and revision named here. A newer upstream release can change its behavior.
03 / PUT IT TO WORK
Add a skill to your workflow.
DOCUMENTED COMMAND
npx skills@1.7.1 add https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills/tree/1401c8b8030e023baeebb31781a6653fe8e93026/skills/constraint-driven-development --skill constraint-driven-developmentCopying does not execute this command. It may retrieve a newer version than the reviewed source.
- Use the exact reviewed directory/revision and select the intended host/project scope in Skills CLI.
- Retain all supporting files; separately configure companion skills, runtimes and service credentials named in the definition.
- Review the resulting diff and use an isolated target before any migration, deployment, load test or warehouse operation.
Before you start
- An agreed project quality policy and the tooling for each selected dimension; existing baselines should be measured first.
04 / FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The source trail.
Our notes are separate from the original resource.
Check upstream before adopting a new version.
- Skill definition ↗Checked
https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills/blob/1401c8b8030e023baeebb31781a6653fe8e93026/skills/constraint-driven-development/SKILL.md
Supports: summary, whySelected, limitations, access, review
- Repository licence ↗Checked
https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills/blob/1401c8b8030e023baeebb31781a6653fe8e93026/LICENSE
Supports: Redistribution terms
- Install instructions ↗Checked
https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills/blob/1401c8b8030e023baeebb31781a6653fe8e93026/README.md
Supports: Documented install path