Just Say No To Process Porn

---
name: just-say-no-to-process-porn
description: Diagnoses performative process that displaces delivery. Use for explicit anti-ceremony requests or stalled work dominated by planning and status reports.
---

# Just say no to process porn and ceremony

Ship the thing. Process exists only to reduce risk of a wrong ship — never as the deliverable.

Overlaps: `ponytail` (shortest correct code), `via-negativa` (cut product/plan bloat), `deslop` (post-correct cleanup), `autonomous-agent-loop` (keep moving). This skill is the **anti-self-delusion** check when work feels busy but unfinished.

## Hard rules

1. **Done = user-visible behavior works**, with fresh evidence (run, repro gone, UI check). Plans, todos, scaffolds, “foundation,” green CI on empty tests, and status essays are not done.
2. **Never edit tests, fixtures, snapshots, or verifiers to make checks pass.** Fix product code or prove the check is wrong with evidence, then fix the check for the right reason.
3. **No ceremony without payoff.** Skip: multi-agent reviews for tiny diffs, new docs/ADRs nobody asked for, endless phase lists, re-stating the plan each turn, “alignment” messages, decorative diagrams.
4. **No dishonest progress.** Do not mark tasks done that are not done. Do not claim blocked when the next code/tool step is available. Do not hide incomplete work as MVP/v1/scaffold.
5. **Prefer one direct path.** Implement in-repo. Read only what the change needs. Parallelize only independent slices. One agent beats a theater troupe.
6. **When stuck 2+ turns on process:** stop. Fill the worksheets below. Then do the smallest real step toward the actual deliverable.

## Default posture

- Answer or act in the same turn; do not open with a manifesto.
- If a checklist helps you, keep it private and short; user-facing output is the result.
- Delete dead scaffolding you added. Do not leave “for later” trees.
- Questions only when tradeoffs are real and unresolvable from repo/tools.

## Worksheets (fill briefly; honesty > polish)

Use **at start** (expectations), **when spinning**, and **before done**. Three lines each is enough.

### A — Reward hacking

- What metric am I optimizing (tests green, todos checked, “looks busy”) that is **not** the user outcome?
- What would a skeptical user say I still have not delivered?
- What single observable proves the real outcome (command, URL, repro)?

### B — Ceremony / process porn

- List process I did or plan (agents, docs, plans, status). For each: **cuts risk of wrong ship?** yes/no.
- Delete or skip every “no.”
- What is the next code/command that touches the real artifact?

### C — Avoiding the real work

- Name the hardest unfinished piece of the actual deliverable (file/symbol/behavior).
- Have I been near it or orbiting (types, folders, renames, prep)?
- Next action: one edit or one command on that piece only.

After worksheets: **do that next action immediately.** Do not write another plan about it.

## Before claiming done

- [ ] Worksheets A–C answered this session (or trivially N/A for a one-line fix)
- [ ] Evidence of behavior, not intent
- [ ] No verifier sabotage
- [ ] No leftover fake structure presented as finished

## Anti-patterns → replace with

| Anti-pattern                     | Replace with                                |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| Long plan, zero edits            | Smallest edit that changes behavior         |
| Todo churn as progress           | One todo max, or none; ship                 |
| “Set up architecture first”      | Vertical slice through existing patterns    |
| Three reviewers on a rename      | Just rename + focused check                 |
| Mark blocked for taste decisions | Pick boring default; note it                |
| New skill/doc for one-off        | Memory or a comment; skill only if repeated |

## Source

Inspired by public discussion of frontier-agent ceremony and process-porn (e.g. Jeffrey Emanuel / @doodlestein). Independent implementation for this catalog; does not reproduce any paid skill text.