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principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

github.com/backnotpropDevelopment3.1k5.7k installsUpdated today
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About principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

A development skill for handling mutable state shared by concurrent actors. It recommends removing shared write targets where possible, and using structural serialization when a single shared target is required.

Key features

  1. 01Identify shared mutable state
  2. 02Give actors separate write targets
  3. 03Merge at reporting boundaries
  4. 04Serialize required shared writes
  5. 05Consider locks a design smell

Use cases

  1. 01Designing concurrent worker state
  2. 02Preventing file-write race conditions
  3. 03Coordinating shared branches or APIs

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/backnotprop/pstack --skill principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

After installing, type/principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-statein Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

Separate Before Serializing Shared State

When concurrent actors might share mutable state, first ask whether they need the same mutable object. If not, eliminate the sharing. When sharing is real, enforce serialization structurally: lockfiles, sequential phases, exclusive ownership. Instructions and conventions are not concurrency control.

Why: Concurrent writes to shared state create race conditions that are intermittent, hard to reproduce, and expensive to debug.

Pattern:

  1. Identify shared mutable state (files both read and write, branches both push to, APIs both define and consume).
  2. Default: eliminate the shared write target. Ask: do these actors need one canonical object, or are they publishing independent facts? Give each actor its own owned file, key, branch, or state directory, and merge only at the read/reporting boundary. Two workers writing their own lastX field into one state.json is still shared mutation. indexer-state.json + metrics-state.json is not.
  3. Only when one shared write target is a real invariant, serialize access structurally (lockfiles, sequential phases, single-writer actor, or atomic compare-and-swap). Treat "we need a lock" as a design smell to check, not as the default answer.

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