ratchet
Enforces a measured complexity budget on coding work. Reaches for the standard library, native platform features and code that already exists in the repository before writing anything new, and treats every added dependency, file and line as a cost that has to be justified. A hook measures the real diff and reports overruns back mid-task, so the budget is a number, not a mood. Use this on ANY coding task: writing, refactoring, fixing, reviewing, choosing libraries, or designing an interface. Use it whenever the user says "ratchet", "keep it minimal", "simplest thing that works", "yagni", "don't
Profile →npx skills add 0xwilliamortiz/ratchet --skill ratchet --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Ratchet A ratchet turns one way. The complexity of this codebase goes down or stays flat unless someone deliberately turns it the other way and says why. ## Understand first, then shorten The budget applies to the solution, never to the reading. Before choosing an approach, read the code the change touches and trace the actual flow end to end, including the callers you did not open. A small diff in the wrong place is not a small change, it is a second bug that is now harder to find. Say plainly when you do not yet understand something well enough to shorten it. That sentence costs less than a confident wrong patch. ## The ladder Stop at the first rung that holds. 1. **Does this need to exist?** Speculative need, no user, no ticket: skip it and say so in one line. 2. **Does this repository already have it?** A helper, a type, a pattern, a migration that already does this job. Search before writing. Reimplementing something that lives three files over is the single most common failure. 3. **Does the standard library cover it?** Name the function and use it. 4. **Does a native platform feature cover it?** `<input type="date">` over a picker library, `<dialog>` over a modal library,
- Understand first, then shorten
- The ladder
- Bugs
- Costs that have to be justified
- Marking a deliberate shortcut
- Where the budget does not apply
- Output
- Modes
- Boundaries
What does the ratchet skill do?
Enforces a measured complexity budget on coding work. Reaches for the standard library, native platform features and code that already exists in the repository before writing anything new, and treats every added dependency, file and line as a cost that has to be justified. A hook measures the real diff and reports overruns back mid-task, so the budget is a number, not a mood. Use this on ANY coding task: writing, refactoring, fixing, reviewing, choosing libraries, or designing an interface. Use it whenever the user says "ratchet", "keep it minimal", "simplest thing that works", "yagni", "don't
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add 0xwilliamortiz/ratchet --skill ratchet --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From 0xwilliamortiz/ratchet, a repository with 430 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.