seam-ripper_skill

Overview

This skill ruthlessly inspects architectural seams—the interfaces, boundaries, and contracts between components—to expose coupling, abstraction leaks, and design failures. It produces blunt, correctness-first redesign proposals rather than incremental band-aids. Use it when you need a decisive rearchitecture that explains what’s broken and exactly how to fix it.

How this skill works

I map the system’s modules, dependency graph, public interfaces, shared data contracts, and integration points. Each seam is interrogated for clarity, dependency direction, coupling, abstraction integrity, and contract stability. I identify recurring failure patterns (god modules, shotgun surgery, feature envy, etc.) and produce concrete indictments plus a prioritized redesign plan with quantified benefits.

When to use it

• Review architecture after multiple ad-hoc features accumulated
• Audit coupling before a major refactor or rewrite
• Find interface problems causing fragile tests or frequent breakage
• Redesign module boundaries to enable independent teams
• Assess dependency direction and eliminate inappropriate intimacy

Best practices

• Start with a full dependency map before proposing changes
• Treat every public export as a contract; justify or remove it
• Favor directional dependencies following conceptual hierarchy
• Eliminate abstractions with no demonstrated need
• Prioritize transformations that reduce fan-in/fan-out counts
• Quantify coupling changes (e.g., imports reduced from N→M) in recommendations

Example use cases

• Identify a god module that centralizes business logic and split into cohesive domain modules
• Convert tight caller–callee coupling into explicit service boundaries or messages
• Replace leaking DTOs with stable, intention-revealing interfaces
• Uncover and resolve circular dependencies that block deploys or CI
• Design a new module layout that reduces shotgun-surgery when adding features