consistencylisted

# Consistency — name what already solves it, then record the decision to differ ## The stance **A second implementation is a decision, and an undeclared decision is a defect.** Not because variation is forbidden — because the two copies will disagree, and the looser one wins silently. This repository has recorded that three times under one failure key: a hook carrying its own copy of an engine's staleness policy at 14 days while the engine said 7; a gate list hand-copied into a handoff and missing one row; two implementations of "has promotion happened" inside a single file, disagreeing for as long as both existed. So the discipline is one question asked before the writing, not a review afterwards: > **What already solves this, and if the answer is "something does", why is a new one better?** Both halves are required. Naming nothing and writing anyway is the failure. Naming something and differing anyway is fine — **provided the differing is recorded where the next reader finds it.** ## What this owns, and what it must not restate This skill is a composition layer over rules and skills that already exist. It **cites** them; a second copy of a rule drifts, which is the thing being prosecuted here. | The task | Its owner | Never re-derived here | |---|---|---| | Searching outward before writing new code — GitHub, vendor docs, package registries | [`common/development-workflow.md`](../../rules/common/development-workflow.md) § Feature Implementation Workflow step 0 | The