Scoped Colocation & Structural Hygiene
Intent
Ensure deliverable functionality is organised as atomic vertical slices, with related interfaces, classes, services, tests, documentation, templates, and scripts co-located at the narrowest meaningful scope.
This skill exists to preserve clarity, traceability, and ownership; enable independent build/test/deploy; prevent duplication and architectural drift; and apply DRY/YAGNI via disciplined reuse boundaries across repository structure.
When to Use
- •Creating or modifying any interface, class, service, or component
- •Introducing new functionality (greenfield or brownfield)
- •Reviewing boundaries, reuse decisions, or folder/namespace structure
- •Extracting shared libraries or consolidating duplicated functionality
- •Reorganising monorepo structure or shared resources
- •Placing templates, scripts, or tooling assets
Precondition Failure Signal
- •Related definitions dispersed across unrelated folders/namespaces
- •Tests or documentation detached from the functionality they validate
- •Templates/scripts stored centrally without clear ownership
- •A slice cannot be built/tested/deployed independently
- •Shared functionality duplicated across multiple slices
- •Functionality from another repository moved/modified without confirming other consumers
- •"Common/shared/utils" areas accumulate unrelated responsibilities
Postcondition Success Signal
- •Slice-local definitions are co-located in a common folder and namespace/module
- •Each slice contains what it needs to build/test/deploy independently
- •Shared functionality reused across multiple slices/projects lives outside slices in a dedicated library
- •No duplicated shared functionality exists across slices
- •External reuse scope is understood and documented before relocation/modification
- •Boundaries are minimal, intentional, and traceable
- •Templates and scripts live with their owning skill/component and are installed to shared locations only when required
Process
- •Source Review: Inspect the current file structure and identify where related logic, tests, docs, templates, and scripts are located.
- •Implementation: Move related files into the same directory or slice-local structure.
- •Verification: Run tests for the moved components to ensure all dependencies are correctly resolved.
- •Documentation: Document the component's internal structure and boundaries in its local
README.md. - •Review: Tech Lead and Platform Engineer review the colocation and boundary decisions.
Example Test / Validation
- •Given a change set, identify the slice and verify code/tests/docs are co-located
- •Build and test the slice in isolation
- •Verify shared models/services are not duplicated across slices
- •Confirm external reuse scope before moving/modifying referenced functionality
Common Red Flags / Guardrail Violations
- •"We'll tidy this up later"
- •Splitting related code "for reuse" without evidence
- •Duplicating shared models/services instead of extracting a library
- •Creating broad "common/core/utils" folders without clear ownership
- •Moving code from another repo without validating downstream consumers
- •Centralising templates/scripts without a defined owner
- •Expanding slice scope beyond what is required for the change
Recommended Review Personas
- •Tech Lead – validates boundaries, scope discipline, and architectural intent
- •Architecture/Domain Expert – validates reuse decisions and cohesion
- •Platform/DevOps Engineer – validates independent build/test/deploy assumptions
- •QA/Tester – validates slice completeness and tests aligned to behaviour
Skill Priority
P1 – Quality & Correctness
(Escalate to P0 if release traceability/immutability or deployment guarantees are compromised.)
Conflict Resolution Rules
- •Narrowest-scope colocation overrides convenience-based grouping
- •Shared extraction requires demonstrable reuse; otherwise keep slice-local
- •External reuse ambiguity requires escalation before relocation/modification
- •Overrides Delivery/Optimisation skills when they push scope-broadening or shortcuts
Conceptual Dependencies
- •incremental-change-impact
- •library-extraction-stabilisation
- •ci-cd-conformance
Classification
Core
Governance
Notes
This skill is intentionally strict. Violations often indicate systemic drift rather than a local choice.