# Principle Build The Lever

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks.

- Repository: https://github.com/nightly-labs/openbot (4509 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-build-the-lever -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-build-the-lever -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-build-the-lever -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add nightly-labs/openbot --skill principle-build-the-lever -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or proves it (codemod, script, generator, or a skill your subagents follow) instead of working by hand. The tool is the artifact a reviewer can rerun.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Build the Lever

When the work isn't trivial, build the tool that does it instead of doing it by hand.

A codemod, generator, or script does the work the same way every time and reruns for free. The tool is one artifact a reviewer can read and rerun to check the work. Hand-done changes can only be re-verified by redoing them. A deterministic script turns "trust me" into "run this".

Default to building the lever. Skip it only when the task is trivial, a couple of obvious edits you can see at a glance.

- Do the first unit by hand to learn the recipe, then build the tool. Prove it by rerunning it on that unit and diffing against your hand-done version. Make the lever safe to rerun.
- Codemod or script for edits, generator for repetitive files, a dump-to-sqlite query for analysis, a rerunnable check for verification.
- A deterministic lever beats fan-out. If the tool can process every unit in one pass, run it yourself. Don't fan out delegates to hand-apply what a script can do.
- When you fan work out to subagents, write the lever as a skill they all read: the recipe, the verification contract, and the do-not-touch fences in one artifact. Keep it outside the delegates' write scope so they can't quietly edit the contract.
- Applying this principle produces a file. If you cited it and there is no codemod, script, generator, or delegate skill in the diff, you didn't apply it.
- Commit the lever when the work outlives the session.

The bar is triviality, not repetition. A one-off still earns a lever when the lever is what makes the work checkable. Per the [Laziness Protocol](../principle-laziness-protocol/SKILL.md), build the smallest script that does or proves the job, never a framework.

The rest: https://github.com/nightly-labs/openbot/blob/HEAD/marketplace/production-catalog/bundles/pstack/skills/principle-build-the-lever/SKILL.md