What is the Airlock Principle in this skill?

It is a philosophy that validation must be efficient: the time and cost of quality gates must be significantly lower than the value they protect and the work they validate.

What is Excellence Temperature (τ)?

Excellence Temperature (τ) is a calculated metric ranging from 0 (perfect) to infinity, aggregating factors like test coverage, latency, and technical debt ratio to quantify project quality.

Can it detect organizational issues as well as code issues?

Yes, the skill includes detection signals for process anti-patterns such as 'Heroics' (single points of failure) and 'Bikeshedding' (trivial decision delays).

How does the 'descend' command improve my code?

The descend command calculates the gradient of your current metrics to identify which specific area (e.g., coverage or complexity) offers the fastest path to reducing your Excellence Temperature.

Excellence Gradient

Name: Excellence Gradient
Author: plurigrid

byplurigrid

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Analytics & Monitoring

Transforms software quality into a measurable gradient to drive continuous improvement through mathematical optimization and anti-pattern detection.

About

Excellence Gradient is a sophisticated quality-engineering skill that moves beyond binary pass/fail gates, treating software quality as a continuous vector. By calculating a project's 'Excellence Temperature' (τ) across weighted metrics—including code coverage, technical debt, and latency—it provides developers with a clear 'steepest descent' path toward optimization. Grounded in the Airlock Principle, it ensures that validation processes protect value without consuming momentum, making it an essential tool for engineering teams who treat quality as a navigation problem rather than a set of static walls.

Key Features

Performs gradient descent analysis to identify the most impactful next quality improvement.
2 GitHub stars
Detects complex code anti-patterns like God Classes, Feature Envy, and Shotgun Surgery.
Identifies process bottlenecks including Analysis Paralysis and Heroics.
Applies the Airlock Principle to ensure validation cost remains significantly lower than protected value.
Calculates Excellence Temperature (τ) to provide a unified metric for project health.

Use Cases

Tracking project maturation and quality trends over time for data-driven engineering leadership.
Auditing CI/CD pipelines to ensure quality gates are accelerating rather than blocking development.
Prioritizing technical debt remediation based on calculated impact on overall excellence.

About

Key Features

Performs gradient descent analysis to identify the most impactful next quality improvement.
2 GitHub stars
Detects complex code anti-patterns like God Classes, Feature Envy, and Shotgun Surgery.
Identifies process bottlenecks including Analysis Paralysis and Heroics.
Applies the Airlock Principle to ensure validation cost remains significantly lower than protected value.
Calculates Excellence Temperature (τ) to provide a unified metric for project health.

Use Cases

Tracking project maturation and quality trends over time for data-driven engineering leadership.
Auditing CI/CD pipelines to ensure quality gates are accelerating rather than blocking development.
Prioritizing technical debt remediation based on calculated impact on overall excellence.