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principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

github.com/mdsmithaustinDevelopment8146 installsUpdated 1d ago
Repository

About principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state

A development skill for handling mutable state shared by concurrent actors. It recommends removing unnecessary sharing first and structurally serializing access only when a shared write target is required.

Key features

  1. 01Identify shared mutable state
  2. 02Eliminate unnecessary shared write targets
  3. 03Give actors separately owned state
  4. 04Serialize access when sharing is required
  5. 05Treat locking as a design smell to examine

Use cases

  1. 01Designing concurrent worker state
  2. 02Preventing races in shared files or APIs
  3. 03Choosing between separate state and serialized writes

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

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

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

Bundled filesagents/openai.yaml

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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