v1.57.4.0 refactor(ethos): rename Boil the Lake principle to Boil the Ocean (#1912)

* refactor(ethos): rename Boil the Lake principle to Boil the Ocean Reframes the completeness principle so the ocean (the complete thing) is the goal and lakes are the boilable units you ship on the way there. "Don't boil the ocean" was right when engineering time was the bottleneck; AI killed that bottleneck, so the ocean is now the destination. Resolves an existing split: the scope_appetite psychographic, archetypes, and the completeness intro flow already used "boil the ocean" as the complete-implementation pole while the named principle still said "lake". Sources only: ETHOS.md philosophy, CLAUDE.md, README.md, the preamble resolvers, and the plan/autoplan/document-generate templates. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> * test: update assertions + golden fixtures for Boil the Ocean rename skill-validation and terse-build now assert "Boil the Ocean"; the three ship golden fixtures are regenerated to match the renamed Completeness Principle header and intro prose. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> * docs: regenerate SKILL.md files for Boil the Ocean rename Mechanical `bun run gen:skill-docs` output: the Completeness Principle header and intro flow now read "Boil the Ocean" across every generated skill. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> * chore: bump version and changelog (v1.57.4.0) Boil the Ocean rename: completeness principle renamed across ETHOS, every generated skill, CLAUDE.md, README, and the preamble resolvers. Text only, no runtime behavior change. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-10 12:03:59 +02:00 · 2026-06-08 05:41:07 -07:00
parent d8c91c6267
commit 41c6d3ebf6
66 changed files with 237 additions and 178 deletions
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ touch ~/.gstack/.writing-style-prompted

 Skip if `WRITING_STYLE_PENDING` is `no`.

-If `LAKE_INTRO` is `no`: say "gstack follows the **Boil the Lake** principle — do the complete thing when AI makes marginal cost near-zero. Read more: https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean" Offer to open:
+If `LAKE_INTRO` is `no`: say "gstack follows the **Boil the Ocean** principle — do the complete thing when AI makes marginal cost near-zero. Read more: https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean" Offer to open:

 ```bash
 open https://garryslist.org/posts/boil-the-ocean
@@ -618,9 +618,9 @@ Applies to AskUserQuestion, user replies, and findings. AskUserQuestion Format i
 Curated jargon list lives at `~/.claude/skills/gstack/scripts/jargon-list.json` (80+ terms). On the first jargon term you encounter this session, Read that file once; treat the `terms` array as the canonical list. The list is repo-owned and may grow between releases.


-## Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake
+## Completeness Principle — Boil the Ocean

-AI makes completeness cheap. Recommend complete lakes (tests, edge cases, error paths); flag oceans (rewrites, multi-quarter migrations).
+AI makes completeness cheap, so the complete thing is the goal. Recommend full coverage (tests, edge cases, error paths) — boil the ocean one lake at a time. The only thing out of scope is genuinely unrelated work (rewrites, multi-quarter migrations); flag that as separate scope, never as an excuse for a shortcut.

 When options differ in coverage, include `Completeness: X/10` (10 = all edge cases, 7 = happy path, 3 = shortcut). When options differ in kind, write: `Note: options differ in kind, not coverage — no completeness score.` Do not fabricate scores.

@@ -886,7 +886,7 @@ Read the `/office-hours` skill file at `~/.claude/skills/gstack/office-hours/SKI
 Follow its instructions from top to bottom, **skipping these sections** (already handled by the parent skill):
 - Preamble (run first)
 - AskUserQuestion Format
- Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake
+- Completeness Principle — Boil the Ocean
 - Search Before Building
 - Contributor Mode
 - Completion Status Protocol
@@ -927,7 +927,7 @@ Before reviewing anything, answer these questions:
   If the plan rolls a custom solution where a built-in exists, flag it as a scope reduction opportunity. Annotate recommendations with **[Layer 1]**, **[Layer 2]**, **[Layer 3]**, or **[EUREKA]** (see preamble's Search Before Building section). If you find a eureka moment — a reason the standard approach is wrong for this case — present it as an architectural insight.
 5. **TODOS cross-reference:** Read `TODOS.md` if it exists. Are any deferred items blocking this plan? Can any deferred items be bundled into this PR without expanding scope? Does this plan create new work that should be captured as a TODO?

-5. **Completeness check:** Is the plan doing the complete version or a shortcut? With AI-assisted coding, the cost of completeness (100% test coverage, full edge case handling, complete error paths) is 10-100x cheaper than with a human team. If the plan proposes a shortcut that saves human-hours but only saves minutes with CC+gstack, recommend the complete version. Boil the lake.
+5. **Completeness check:** Is the plan doing the complete version or a shortcut? With AI-assisted coding, the cost of completeness (100% test coverage, full edge case handling, complete error paths) is 10-100x cheaper than with a human team. If the plan proposes a shortcut that saves human-hours but only saves minutes with CC+gstack, recommend the complete version. Boil the ocean.

 6. **Distribution check:** If the plan introduces a new artifact type (CLI binary, library package, container image, mobile app), does it include the build/publish pipeline? Code without distribution is code nobody can use. Check:
   - Is there a CI/CD workflow for building and publishing the artifact?