What problem does it solve? Codebases accumulate over-engineered abstractions, unnecessary dependencies, and speculative features that create maintenance burden. This Skill forces the simplest working solution by applying a senior developer's judgment: question whether code needs to exist, prefer the standard library, and ship the shortest working diff. ## Core Features & Use Cases - The Ladder: A decision hierarchy that stops at the first working rung — YAGNI check, stdlib, native platform features, existing dependencies, one-liners, then minimal code. - Intensity Levels: Three modes (lite, full, ultra) control how aggressively simplification is enforced, switchable with /seniordev lite|full|ultra. - Deliberate Simplification Markers: seniordev: comments document intentional shortcuts with their known ceilings and upgrade paths. - Use Case: When asked to add a caching layer for API responses, instead of building a custom cache class, the Skill applies @lru_cache(maxsize=1000) and notes when a custom solution would actually be needed. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to use seniordev mode to implement your next feature with the simplest solution that works.
