The No-Slop Checklist

Walk this top to bottom against every file you created or changed. Each item: fix it, or write one line on why it’s a deliberate exception.

1. Dead code

• No unused variables, imports, parameters, or functions
• No commented-out code blocks (“might need this later” — that’s what git is for)
• No unreachable branches
• No config, flags, or dependencies added “just in case”

Dead code is a lie about what the program does. Delete it.

2. Unhandled errors

• Every fallible call (I/O, network, parse, external command) has a real failure path
• No swallowed exceptions (catch {} with nothing in it)
• No errors logged and then ignored as if handled
• Failure messages say what failed and what to do, not just “Error”

3. Duplication

• No copy-pasted blocks with minor edits — third occurrence means extract
• No parallel structures that must be kept in sync by hand
• Shared logic lives in one place

4. Naming

• No data, info, temp, obj, handle, doStuff, process, manager without a qualifier
• Names say what the thing is or does, specifically
• Booleans read as questions (isReady, hasAccess), not nouns
• Consistent vocabulary — don’t call it user here and account there for the same thing

5. Untested edges

• Empty input, null/undefined, zero, negative, max-size
• The unhappy path — what happens when the thing it depends on is down
• Concurrency, if anything here can run in parallel
• The eval from the brief actually covers what “done” means — not just the happy path

6. Comments

• No comment that just restates the code (// loop over users)
• Comments that remain explain why, not what — the non-obvious decision, the constraint, the gotcha
• No stale comments describing code that changed

7. Consistency with the codebase

• Matches the surrounding file’s idioms, structure, and naming — not your personal defaults
• Uses the project’s existing utilities instead of reinventing them
• Same error-handling, logging, and import style as its neighbors

8. Scope

• Everything here is in the brief
• Anything extra is flagged explicitly, not smuggled in
• Nothing in the brief was silently dropped

9. Fake done

• No TODO / FIXME / XXX left without a tracked follow-up
• No stubbed returns or hardcoded values pretending to be real implementation
• No “works on my machine” assumptions baked in
• No console logs / debug prints left in

10. Verified, not claimed

• Anything reported as “working” was actually run
• Anything reported as “deployed” / “done” / “live” has proof from the same session — a passing test, a curl, a screenshot, a log line
• Test failures are reported as failures, with output — not hidden or hand-waved

The rule: the work is not eligible for the review gate while any item above is an unexplained hit. Fix, or justify in one line. No third option.