Deep Code Intelligence

The workflow for problems where speed kills quality — architecture, root cause, high-stakes refactor. Evidence first, recommendation second.

Workflow

1. Frame the problem

Restate in one paragraph: what is the goal, what is the constraint, what is the hidden cost of being wrong? Write it down even if the user already said it — framing shifts under scrutiny.

2. Build an evidence table

| Claim | Source | Confidence | Counter-evidence |
|-------|--------|-----------|------------------|
| X calls Y synchronously | src/a/b.ts:42-58 | high | ... |

No recommendation without this table. If you can't fill it, you don't know enough yet — go read more before synthesizing.

3. Identify invariants and constraints

• Invariants the code must preserve (data integrity, ordering, idempotency).
• Constraints from the environment (runtime version, db version, budget, timeline).
• Assumptions Claude is making (mark explicitly — these are the hypothesis branches).

4. Hypothesis tree

For debugging/diagnosis: root-cause tree with ≥3 branches. Each branch:

• Claim
• Evidence-for count
• Evidence-against count
• Verification step (the cheapest check that confirms or refutes)

For design: alternatives tree with ≥3 options. Each option:

• Sketch
• Cost (effort, runtime, operational)
• Reversibility (can we undo?)
• Who wins / who loses (not everything is net-positive)

5. Synthesize recommendation

Only now. Recommendation has:

• Chosen path with one-sentence rationale
• What was rejected and why
• Risks and mitigations
• Rollback plan if the recommendation fails in production

6. Signal certainty honestly

• "High confidence" — evidence is multi-source, counter-evidence addressed.
• "Medium" — some evidence, but a few assumptions.
• "Low" — more research needed; here's the next best step.

Never upgrade certainty to sound confident. A low-confidence answer clearly labeled is more useful than a high-confidence guess.

When to invoke principal-engineer-strategist agent

Route to the agent when:

• The decision affects multiple teams.
• The cost of being wrong is ≥ days of work.
• There are hidden stakeholders (security, compliance, ops) whose concerns aren't obvious.
• The task requires deep repo context that exceeds working memory.

Agent runs the same workflow with more depth and less context pressure.

MCP delegation

Need	Tool
Task resolution → starting docs	cc_docs_resolve_task(task)
Compare two approaches side by side	cc_docs_compare(["approach-a", "approach-b"])
Check pattern fit	cc_kb_pattern_template(name)

Anti-patterns

• Recommending before the evidence table → advice isn't grounded; often wrong in subtle ways.
• Single-branch hypothesis tree → not actually a tree; confirmation bias.
• Ignoring counter-evidence → the one line that breaks the claim is the one that matters.
• "Move fast" framing on high-stakes work → that's the definition of getting it wrong.

Reference

• evidence-table-format.md — evidence table column schema + examples