The Pure Code Manifesto

The art of writing less while doing more.

We believe in software that is simple, reliable, secure, and refactorable. Developers should be productive to do changes safely and also feel good about it.

To achieve this, we commit to the following principles:

1. Favor simplicity over cleverness.
   Use fewer components, fewer dependencies, and short, explicit code paths.

2. Solve problems directly.
   Introduce libraries, abstractions, or innovations only when they reduce complexity.

3. Express intent clearly.
   Avoid boilerplate, configuration, or metadata that obscures meaning.

4. Design for correctness.
   Make it easy to do things right and hard to do wrong.

5. Start simple, refactor often.
   Build for change, not speculation. Reject overengineering. Extract when it grows.

6. Ship only what is verified.
   Reliability matters more than untested completeness.

7. Operate on domain entities, not incidental state.
   Favor type safety, explicit contracts, and encapsulation.

8. Architecture follows ownership.
   Split systems and services only when maintained by dedicated teams.

Collaboration with AI

These principles are not only for humans.

Software that is simple, explicit, well-encapsulated, and verified is easier to understand, change, and extend — not just by developers, but by AI coding agents as well.

By favoring clarity over cleverness, intent over boilerplate, and correctness over implicit behavior, we create systems where:

• context is discoverable in code, not hidden in configuration
• changes are local, testable, and reversible
• safe refactoring is routine, not risky
• automation can assist without amplifying mistakes

As AI becomes a regular collaborator in software development, pure code becomes a shared language. It enables humans and machines to work together productively, safely, and with confidence — writing less code, doing more, and improving systems continuously.

In practice

See the practical guide