Vibe Anti Rationalization Check

vibe-anti-rationalization-check

LLMs systematically rationalize shortcuts. This skill catches it happening.

When to Use This Skill

• You catch yourself thinking "this is simple enough to skip testing"
• You're about to reduce scope without the user asking
• You notice you're explaining why something "doesn't really need" to be done
• A constraint feels "too strict" and you want to relax it
• You're about to say "in the interest of time..."

When NOT to Use This Skill

• The user explicitly asked to skip something
• You're genuinely unsure if something is needed (ask the user instead)
• The simplification is the user's explicit request

Known Rationalization Patterns

Watch for these thoughts — they're red flags:

| Rationalization | Reality | |----------------|---------| | "This is too simple to need tests" | Simple code in complex systems causes the hardest bugs | | "The user probably doesn't care about this edge case" | Production users will find every edge case | | "We don't need error handling here" | Internal code fails too, especially during refactors | | "I'll add that later" | "Later" never comes. Do it now or create a tracked task | | "This is just boilerplate" | Boilerplate often contains critical correctness constraints | | "The happy path is enough for now" | The sad path is where real users spend most of their time | | "It works, so it must be correct" | "Works" and "correct" are different things | | "This test is redundant" | Redundant tests catch redundant bugs | | "Let me simplify this requirement" | Simplifying without asking = silently dropping scope | | "This doesn't need documentation" | If you thought about it for >2 minutes, document why |

Steps

When you detect a rationalization:

1. Name it — "I notice I'm rationalizing skipping [X]"
2. State the constraint — "The requirement says [specific requirement]"
3. Evaluate honestly — Is there a legitimate reason to skip this, or is it laziness?
4. Choose:

• If legitimate: Ask the user "Should we skip X because Y?"
• If rationalization: Do the work. Don't mention the temptation.

1. If you skipped something without asking: Go back and do it

Output

This skill doesn't produce output — it's a mental discipline check. When triggered, it modifies behavior, not output.

If invoked explicitly by the user, report:

• What rationalizations were detected in recent work
• What was skipped and why
• What should be revisited

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ash1794
• Source: ash1794/vibe-engineering
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.