AFTER (Architect First, Test Everything Rigorously)

AFTER (Architect First, Test Everything Rigorously) is a methodology for AI-assisted software development.

AI generation is cheap, engineering judgment is expensive. The engineer's value concentrates at the two ends of the workflow, before generation and after it, hence the name.

The two pillars

Pillar	Summary
Architect First	No code is generated before the human has made the decisions that matter.
Test Everything Rigorously	Nothing ships on trust. Generated output is treated as unverified until proven.

Use it in 30 seconds

Interface	One-line setup
Claude Code / CLAUDE.md	Copy AFTER.md to CLAUDE.md at the project root.
AGENTS.md	Copy AFTER.md to AGENTS.md at the project root.
Cursor rules	Paste AFTER.md into your Cursor project rules file.
Plain system prompt	Paste AFTER.md as the system prompt for the agent.

Workflows

Workflow	Use when
Greenfield	Starting a new project and you need specification, architecture, and a plan before implementation.
Feature	Adding or changing behavior in an existing project.
Debug	You need a failing reproduction first, then a root cause, then a minimal fix.
Refactor	You need to improve code that already exists without changing the intended behavior.

Ecosystem

• AFTER.md is the lightweight tier. It is the drop-in protocol file for day-to-day use.
• METHODOLOGY.md is the full specification.
• Morialkar/yvcdb is the enforcement tier. It adds structural human gates for larger work and tighter review control.

FAQ

Does this slow me down?

AFTER scales to the stakes. For a throwaway experiment, the human may waive phases; waiving must be their explicit call, never your silent shortcut. For anything meant to be maintained, shipped, or signed, the full workflow applies.

What about throwaway prototypes?

Use the scaling rule above. Skip ceremony only when the human explicitly waives it for a throwaway experiment.

The AI writes most of the code. The human makes every decision.