✓ Complementary
Can be combined as equal active guidance without one book arbitrating the other. Count: 78.
Rule composition / AGENTS.md compatibility
Do not load every good rule set at once.
Some books complement each other. Some overlap. A few conflict as equal active guidance. The compatibility matrix helps choose a small, coherent rule stack.
↻ Overlap
Choose one. They apply similar pressure or compete for the same decision layer. Count: 11.
× Conflict
Do not load together as equal active rule sets. Pick the one that matches the project model. Count: 2.
Fast Defaults
Good combinations for common work.
| Task | Primary | Optional companion |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday implementation | Clean Code | Code Complete only when construction discipline matters more than brevity. |
| Boundary-heavy architecture | Clean Architecture | Domain-Driven Design for domain model pressure. |
| Legacy refactoring | Working Effectively with Legacy Code | Refactoring. |
| Production service change | Release It! | Designing Data-Intensive Applications for data semantics. |
Compatibility Matrix
Based on the canonical mini rule sets. Use this before combining multiple rules or skills in one session.
✓ complementary
↻ overlap, choose one
× conflict
N/A same rule set
| Book | APoSD | CleanA | CleanC | CodeC | DDIA | DDD | DDD Dist | IDDD | PoEAA | Refactoring | Ref Guru | Release It | PragProg | WELC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APoSD | N/A | ✓ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CleanA | ✓ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CleanC | ↻ | ✓ | N/A | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | ✓ |
| CodeC | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | ✓ |
| DDIA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| DDD | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ↻ | ↻ | × | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| DDD Dist | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | N/A | ↻ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| IDDD | ✓ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | ↻ | N/A | × | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PoEAA | ✓ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | × | ↻ | × | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Refactoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ref Guru | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Release It | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ |
| PragProg | ✓ | ✓ | ↻ | ↻ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ |
| WELC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A |
High-Risk Pairs
These are the pairs to check before loading multiple book rules as active guidance.
Conflicts
domain-driven-design with patterns-of-enterprise-application-architecture, and implementing-domain-driven-design with patterns-of-enterprise-application-architecture.
Common overlaps
clean-code with code-complete, refactoring with refactoring-guru, DDD variants with each other, and broad pragmatic rules with everyday code quality layers.