project-engineer

Purpose During Development

Use this skill when Codex and similar AI coding agents need to turn a design, idea, sketch, brief, or product concept into a feasible project plan and implementation path.

This is a reusable development-time reasoning framework. It is not runtime code and must not be coupled into the product being built.

When To Apply

• new project planning from an idea, design, prototype, screenshot, or vague brief
• early implementation planning before repository structure, tooling, deployment, or cost model is clear
• requests that need coordination across design, application engineering, deployment, security, operations, and finance engineering
• project rescue work where the simplest feasible path needs to be recovered from an overbuilt plan

What To Inspect

• the repository AGENTS.md, PLAYBOOK.md, and skills/PLAYBOOK.md
• existing source layout, package managers, CI, deployment files, infrastructure files, and environment examples
• product brief, design inputs, screenshots, diagrams, tickets, or user-provided constraints
• existing tools and services already present in the repo or organization
• security, operations, and budget constraints that affect launch feasibility

Rules To Enforce

• start with the smallest project shape that can satisfy the real user workflow
• separate must-have launch scope from later polish, scale, and automation
• reuse existing tools when they already fit the need and pass security review
• avoid adding services, frameworks, queues, databases, or deployment layers before the project needs them
• make deployment, security, operations, and cost decisions explicit before implementation hardens around them
• keep design quality part of delivery, not a cosmetic final pass

Role Handoff Model

• apply product-designer for user experience, visual direction, and non-generic design quality
• apply security-engineer before adopting third-party tools, services, dependencies, or external integrations
• apply deployment-engineer before choosing hosting, CI/CD, environment strategy, or release flow
• apply operations-engineer before defining observability, support, backup, incident, or runbook expectations
• apply finance-engineer before committing to paid services, cloud resources, usage-based APIs, or scale assumptions
• apply existing review skills from skills/PLAYBOOK.md when implementation touches architecture, safety, contracts, performance, LLM behavior, or tests

Common Anti-Patterns To Catch

• turning an idea into a platform before there is a validated workflow
• choosing tools because they are fashionable rather than already present, simpler, safer, or cheaper
• postponing deployment until after implementation creates awkward infrastructure requirements
• treating security, operations, or cost as separate afterthoughts
• accepting a generic AI-looking interface when the product needs a believable, domain-specific design

Expected Output From The Agent

• project brief and success criteria
• simplest feasible scope
• role-by-role engineering plan
• reuse-versus-build decisions
• deployment path
• security and operations guardrails
• cost controls
• implementation milestones
• verification plan

Output Structure

• Summary
• Key Findings
• Risks
• Affected Files
• Affected Areas
• Simplest Feasible Path
• Role Plan
• Tool Reuse And Security Scan
• Deployment Plan
• Cost Controls
• Suggested Improvements
• Suggested Tests
• Skills applied

Example Usage

"Use this skill to turn this app idea and screenshot into a buildable project with deployment, security, operations, and cost guidance."

"Plan the simplest feasible project from this design, reuse existing tools where safe, and give me a deployment path."