reuse-or-replace

Reuse or replace

A drift corrector for anti-fragmentation discipline: one way to do a thing, not two. When an established way already exists, new work reuses it or openly replaces it — it does not add a silent second way beside it. The method — re-anchor, audit the work in flight, correct forward, report, and the tone that firing this is not an accusation — lives in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/context/re-anchor-audit-correct.md. Read it; this file adds only what is specific to reusing or replacing an established way rather than splitting into a parallel one.

The discipline this re-anchors

When a codebase, structure, or process already has an established way of doing something, new work must not silently stand up a second, parallel way beside it. Two coexisting ways of doing the same thing is fragmentation — it splits the reader's model, doubles the surface that drifts, and taxes every future change with a "which one?" decision. Resolve the source of truth per the method doc's ladder: if the consuming project states a consistency / one-way rule in its own CLAUDE.md / .claude/rules/, re-anchor THAT. Otherwise re-anchor this portable baseline.

Facing an established way, new work has exactly two honest options — the two this skill is named for:

• Reuse it. Follow the established way, so the codebase keeps one way.
• Replace it. Openly argue the established way should change, then — if it should — migrate the old uses to the new way and record the decision. Replacement converges the codebase on the new single way.

The sin is neither of those: it is leaving the established way in place and quietly adding a divergent way alongside it, so both now exist. That silent second way is what this skill exists to catch.

Misconstrual guard — this is NOT "always conform" (mandatory)

Reusing is not blind conformity, and this skill never demands straight obedience to the incumbent way. Replacing the established way is a first-class, encouraged move, not a deviation to be suppressed. The established way should be replaced when:

• evidence backs an improvement — research or measurement shows a better way (route the evidence-gathering to /discipline:do-your-research);
• its rationale is missing — nobody can say why it is done this way ("I don't know, it just is");
• it rests on incumbency only — "we've always done it this way" is the sole support;
• it is stale or outdated — newer developments may have superseded it; a challenge on this ground requires fresh research, not recall.

Blind trust in the status quo is explicitly bad: don't reuse the established way just because it is the established way. The discipline is not "never diverge" — it is "never diverge silently." When you replace, do it in the open and carry it through — migrate the old uses. When you reuse, reuse because the way holds up, not merely because it is there — that interrogation is /discipline:reason-dont-recite's axis (below).

The burden rule — divergence is priced by blast radius

Replacing the established way (or otherwise diverging from it) is allowed, but it carries a burden: a stated rationale, recorded proportional to the divergence's blast radius.

• Durable or architectural divergence — a new structural pattern, a different error-handling model, a second workflow — records its rationale where durable decisions live: the repo's ADR or docs convention.
• Small, local divergence records it where the change is reviewed: the PR description or the commit message.
• No recorded reason at all is the finding. An unexplained second way is fragmentation whether or not it is defensible on its merits — the burden is to say why, not merely to be right.

Scope — the unlintable "approach" level

This skill owns consistency of how work is done where judgement, not a tool, decides it: code idioms and shapes, module and file structure, naming shapes, error-handling and logging approaches, API and interface conventions, documentation formats, and process or workflow choices.

Mechanical style is out of scope — indentation, quote style, import order, line length, and everything a formatter or linter settles deterministically belong to those tools, not to a judgement corrector. This skill fires at the level a linter cannot reach: the approach, not the whitespace.

Distinct axes — the two skills this must not be confused with

Firing this cleanly requires keeping it apart from two siblings; the boundaries are deliberate, not incidental.

• /discipline:reason-dont-recite (evaluation-side). That skill interrogates inherited content — is this existing convention actually justified, or coasting on precedent? This skill is production-side: when creating new work, reuse the established way unless you state a reason to replace it. They meet at the challenge: when this skill's audit finds you want to replace the established way, the question "is the established way even right?" is reason-dont-recite's, and the evidence for a better way is /discipline:do-your-research's. Reuse-or-replace governs the second way; those govern the justification.
• /discipline:pick-for-the-problem (carve-out — does NOT overlap). That skill governs selecting a tool, library, framework, or dependency to fit the problem, and names incumbency as a selection sin. This skill never governs that selection. Consistency of idioms, structure, and process is reuse-or-replace; choosing what tool or dependency to adopt is pick-for-the-problem, where matching the incumbent choice can be exactly the wrong reflex. Do not apply this skill to a build-vs-buy or which-library decision — route it there.

Audit — what to look for

Name concrete, located findings (per the method doc's step 2):

• a new pattern, idiom, or structure standing beside an existing one that already solves the same thing, with no stated reason for the second way;
• a divergent error-handling, logging, naming, or interface approach introduced where the codebase already has an established one;
• a second workflow, process, or document format added alongside the established one rather than reusing or replacing it;
• a divergence whose blast radius is durable/architectural but whose rationale was never recorded in the repo's ADR/docs convention;
• a small local divergence with no rationale in its PR or commit;
• an established way reused only because it is there, where its rationale is missing, incumbency-only, or stale — a challenge that was owed and skipped (route to /discipline:reason-dont-recite / /discipline:do-your-research).

Correct each forward now: reuse the established way for the new work; or, where replacement is warranted, record the rationale at the blast-radius- appropriate level AND — if the established way is genuinely superseded — migrate the existing uses and retire it rather than leaving both. Never settle for the silent second way.

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not mandate conformity. A well-grounded replacement that supersedes the established way and migrates its uses is a correct outcome, not a violation; the duty is to keep one way, not to freeze the incumbent one.
• Does not police mechanical style. Formatting and lint-settled choices belong to the linter/formatter; this skill audits the unlintable approach level only.
• Does not govern tool or dependency selection. That is /discipline:pick-for-the-problem; incumbency there is a selection sin, not a consistency target.
• Does not fabricate a finding. New work that already reuses the established way, or replaces it with a recorded reason, audits clean; say so.

Gotchas

• The tell is two ways where one would do — not divergence itself. A single replacement that openly superseded the old way (uses migrated, decision recorded) kept the codebase on one way; it is the goal, not the finding. The finding is the old way and the new way both left standing.
• "Be consistent" read as "never replace" inverts the skill. Blind trust in the status quo is the failure mode on the other side; the misconstrual guard exists because straight conformity is not the goal — one way is.
• A recorded reason is the burden, not correctness. An unexplained second way is a finding even if it would have been defensible; the fix is to state the rationale (and keep one way), not to argue the divergence was fine.