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singularity-forge/docs-internal/building-coding-agents/01-work-decomposition.md
Lex Christopherson d20d5e8fb5 docs: add Mintlify documentation site and move internal docs 
Add a proper public-facing documentation site using Mintlify with 19 MDX
pages covering getting started, auto mode, commands, configuration, and
all user-facing features. Move internal/SDK documentation (Pi SDK, TUI,
context & hooks, research notes, ADRs) to docs-internal/ since they
should not be part of the public documentation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-03-25 09:54:41 -06:00

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Work Decomposition

The universal consensus: Elite engineers never jump from vision to code. They use progressive decomposition through layers of abstraction.

The Compression Ladder

Vision → Capabilities → Systems/Architecture → Features → Tasks

Each layer answers a different question:

Layer Question
Vision What world are we creating?
Capabilities What must the product be able to do?
Systems What infrastructure enables those capabilities?
Features What does the user interact with?
Tasks What exact code gets written?

Core Principles (All 4 Models Agree)

  • Start with outcomes, not features. Define "done" before anything else. Not "build a login page" but "a user can securely access their dashboard using OAuth."
  • Vertical slices over horizontal layers. Build thin end-to-end slices (UI → API → DB) rather than completing all backend before all frontend. Each slice is independently demoable and testable.
  • The 1-Day Rule. If a task takes longer than a day, it's not a task — it's a milestone. Break it down further until each item is a single, clear action completable in one sitting.
  • Risk-first exploration. Identify the hardest/most uncertain parts first. Spike on unknowns before committing to architecture. "Kill the biggest risks while they are still cheap to fix."
  • Interface-first design. Define contracts between components before building them. This enables parallel work and creates natural verification checkpoints.
  • MECE decomposition. Tasks should be Mutually Exclusive (no overlap) and Collectively Exhaustive (complete the vision when all are done).

The Recursive Heuristic

If something feels fuzzy, break it down one level deeper. Keep decomposing until a task is obvious how to start.