software-design-philosophy
John Ousterhout's "A Philosophy of Software Design" distilled into a working skill: deep modules, complexity symptoms, red-flag checklists for code reviews and API design.
- What
- John Ousterhout's "A Philosophy of Software Design" distilled into a working skill: deep modules, complexity symptoms, red-flag checklists for code reviews and API design.
- Cost
- Free
- Needs
- Use "software-design-philosophy" with your Muse.
- Install
- Copy the installer prompt below into your Muse — your agent does the rest.
Curated by Skill Harbor: John Ousterhout's A Philosophy of Software Design, distilled into a working skill for code reviews, architecture discussions, and API design. It covers the three symptoms of complexity (change amplification, cognitive load, unknown unknowns), strategic versus tactical programming, deep versus shallow modules, information hiding and leakage, pulling complexity downward, defining errors out of existence, designing everything twice, and the philosophy of comments and naming, with a red-flags quick reference (shallow module, temporal decomposition, pass-through method, vague names, comment repeats code, and nine more) to run through during reviews. By @hotopla5976, listed here with credit to its creator. Discovered via github.com/topics/ai-skills. Honest caveats: this is a study guide distilled from a published book, use it as a working reference and read the book for the full depth; it is plain text, there is nothing to install beyond reading it. Skill Harbor never reviews the code, review it yourself before use.
Version:
Install
Copy the install package below, then paste it into MuseCommunity-built. Skill Harbor doesn't audit code — review the source before installing.
Use "software-design-philosophy" with your Muse. Prerequisites: none. This is a plain-text knowledge skill, nothing to install or configure. 1. Open the skill: https://github.com/hotopla5976/software-design-philosophy-skill and copy the full SKILL.md text. 2. Paste it into a chat with Muse and add: "Use this design philosophy when I ask for code reviews, API design feedback, or refactoring advice. Apply the red-flags checklist to the code I show you." 3. Try it on something real this week: paste a module or a pull request and ask Muse to review it against the deep-modules and red-flags sections. Tip: the "design it twice" habit and the red-flags quick reference are the two highest-leverage parts; ask Muse to run the checklist on your next review. Safety: a skill is plain-text instructions; it runs nothing by itself. Never paste secrets or API keys into it.
Saved to your recent installs. Find it anytime on /connect.
Questions
How do I install a build?
Every product page includes a copy-paste install prompt. Paste it into your Muse and it sets the build up for you — no manual configuration.
Where does my money go?
Straight to the seller. Skill Harbor never processes payments: checkout happens on the seller’s own page, usually Stripe.
What does the ✓ next to a creator’s name mean?
It means we confirmed the identity of the person behind the listing. It says nothing about the code itself — always check a build before installing it.