What problem does it solve? It eliminates planning bloat, mock-heavy testing, and speculative over-engineering when shipping features, fixing bugs, or refactoring code, replacing them with tight, machine-verifiable feedback loops. ## Core Features & Use Cases - 4-Step Rapid Loop: Trace and orient on a targeted code slice, write one failing smoke check, climb the Ponytail minimal-diff ladder (YAGNI to minimal diff), then verify with exit 0. - Smoke-First TDD: Enforces a single runnable assertion proving the bug or exercising the boundary contract instead of elaborate mock factories and fixture scaffolds. - Anti-Pattern Guardrails: Blocks speculative generality, defensive null-checking, test theater, and prose bloat while capping cyclomatic complexity at 10 and nesting depth at 3. - Use Case: When fixing a bug in a large codebase, trace the execution flow, write the smallest assertion that reproduces the failure, apply the smallest working diff at the root cause, and confirm the check passes with exit 0. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to fix a specific bug or implement a small feature using the fast-iterate protocol with a failing smoke check and minimal diff.
