ub-mode Open Source Agent Skill Enforces Disciplined Software Engineering Principles

ub-mode is an open source agent skill published on GitHub designed to enforce disciplined software engineering principles when writing or modifying code. According to the documentation, the project is loosely based on portions of @poteto's rules, specifically poteto-mode and pstack, while pairing reduced guidelines with deterministic quality-gate tools.

Core Principles and Methodology

The repository outlines a structured methodology divided into sequential phases and practices:

• First Make it Work: Incorporates protocols such as the Laziness Protocol, Foundational Thinking, Test-Driven Development (TDD), Redesign From First Principles, Attack the Premise, Subtract Before You Add, Outcome-Oriented Execution, Build the Lever, and Architecture components including domain modeling, boundary discipline, type system discipline, idempotent operations, and state separation before serialization.
• Then Make it Right: Focuses on fixing root causes, sequencing work into verifiable units, testing behavior rather than implementation, maintaining low CRAP scores, reducing duplication, utilizing mutation testing, and refactoring.
• Practice: Emphasizes keeping a log, guarding the context window, performing worktree cleanups, and committing and pushing in small, ordered commits.

Deterministic Quality-Gate Tools

ib-mode relies on specific tools to enforce structure, complexity limits, duplication checks, and test thoroughness:

• unclebob/crapper: Computes cyclomatic complexity, test coverage, and CRAP scores per function to keep metrics below defined thresholds.
• unclebob/dryer: Detects structural code duplication to help eliminate duplicate blocks.
• unclebob/mutator: Executes mutation testing to expose uncovered code and surviving mutants.
• unclebob/uml-viewer: Visualizes components, coverage, CRAP, mutation scores, and dependency directions.

Installation and Usage

To use the skill, developers can copy SKILL.md into their agent's designated skills directory—such as ~/.grok/skills/ub-mode/SKILL.md, ~/.claude/skills/ub-mode/SKILL.md, or ~/.cursor/skills/ub-mode/SKILL.md—and invoke the command `/ub-mode`.

Readers should verify the original README.md file directly on the official GitHub repository for any updates, configuration details, or additional requirements.