---
name: cursor-principle-laziness-protocol
description: "Apply when refactoring, evaluating diff size, or tempted to add abstractions, layers, or signal threading. Bias toward deletion and the smallest change that solves the problem."
disable-model-invocation: true
metadata:
  decimalai-skill-id: "2c36a71f-3732-4a14-a37e-14cc2d01a1c8"
  decimalai-version-id: "6b26552d-890e-4009-9cff-3d7f1d041cc2"
  decimalai-version: "2"
  decimalai-body-sha256: "2a4f1a9d06d32a67f0c0f8d2a23108fa3c3fe345ab48097ca67b2cbb0e96e985"
  decimalai-name: "cursor/principle-laziness-protocol"
  decimalai-format: "1"
  decimalai-invocation: "user"
  decimalai-category: "coding"
  decimalai-source: "https://app.decimal.ai/s/cursor-principle-laziness-protocol@2/SKILL.md"
---
# Laziness Protocol

Aim for the most result with the least code and complexity.

- **Prefer deletion.** When asked to refactor or improve, look for removals before additions.
- **Maintain a flat call hierarchy.** Avoid deep call chains. A rich interface that hides substantial work is not a deep call chain. If answering a question requires tracing through more than 3 files or layers, flatten it.
- **Consolidate decisions.** Do not repeat the same choice in several places. Put it behind one source of truth and pass the result as a simple flag.
- **Minimize the diff.** Make the smallest change that solves the problem. Fewer lines beat "elegant" boilerplate.
- **Question the threading.** If a task asks you to pass a new signal through types, schemas, pipelines, or similar layers, stop and look for a more direct path.
- **Sweat the small leaks.** Remove tiny pass-throughs, representation leaks, and duplicated choices before they spread. Small leaks compound into permanent coordination costs.

**The test:** If a human developer would find the code exhausting to maintain, it is a bad solution.