find-before-build

Search for the existing implementation before writing a new one: name the searches you ran for an existing helper, abstraction, or pattern and what they returned, before introducing anything new. Use before adding a utility, wrapper, config knob, or dependency to a codebase you did not write end-to-end.

License

MIT

Compatibility

PORTABILITY: pure search-then-cite discipline — no hooks, no subagent-spawning tool, no Workflow tool, no harness-specific primitive. The searches are whatever the harness already offers (grep, glob, code search); the receipt is prose. Ports to any harness that can search a codebase and report what it found.