aliatx2017/reasonix-hermes/spike

Spike

When to Use

• You need to test whether an approach will work before committing to it
• You're unsure about API behavior, library compatibility, or algorithm performance
• You want to gather data about a problem space before designing a solution
• A plan step says "validate approach X"

Core Rules

1. Throwaway code — Write in /tmp/spike-<name>/, never in the project tree
2. Time-boxed — 15-30 minutes max, then decide
3. No commits — Spike code is never committed. Extract learnings, discard code.
4. One question per spike — "Will library X handle Y?" not "Build feature Z"

Process

1. State the question clearly
2. Create /tmp/spike-<name>/
3. Write minimal code to answer the question
4. Run it, observe results
5. Report: what worked, what didn't, what you learned
6. rm -rf /tmp/spike-<name>/

Go-Specific

mkdir -p /tmp/spike-<name>
cd /tmp/spike-<name>
go mod init spike
# Write main.go
go run .

Output

A concise report:

• Question: What were you testing?
• Approach: What did you try?
• Result: What happened?
• Decision: Go / No-Go / Need more info
• Artifacts: Any data or logs worth keeping (move to project docs, not code)

When NOT to Spike

• You already know the answer (just build it)
• The question needs a full implementation to answer (spike won't help)
• You're using the spike as an excuse to avoid making a decision

Related

• Project skill: evidence-first-reasoning — verify hypotheses discriminatively
• Project skill: plan (if adopted) — spike before committing to a plan