---

name: detect-over-engineering description: Detect unnecessary complexity, speculative generality, and over-engineered solutions in code allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Task argument-hint: "[path-or-pattern]"

Detect Over-Engineering Command

Analyze code to identify unnecessary complexity, speculative generality, and over-engineered solutions.

Usage

/enterprise-architecture:detect-over-engineering [path-or-pattern]

Arguments

• path-or-pattern (optional): Path to analyze
  • If provided: Analyze the specified path or pattern
  • If omitted: Analyze the entire codebase

Examples

/enterprise-architecture:detect-over-engineering
/enterprise-architecture:detect-over-engineering src/services/
/enterprise-architecture:detect-over-engineering **/*.cs

Workflow

1. Scan for Complexity Indicators

   • Search for patterns indicating over-engineering
   • Identify abstraction layers
   • Find unused flexibility points

2. Spawn Over-Engineering Detector Agent Use the over-engineering-detector agent to analyze. The agent detects:

   • Speculative Generality - Abstractions without multiple implementations
   • Premature Abstraction - Complexity before demonstrated need
   • Gold Plating - Features beyond requirements
   • Astronaut Architecture - Excessive layers and indirection

3. Present Findings Display findings organized by:

   • Critical - Significant complexity with no benefit
   • Warning - Potential over-engineering
   • Info - Minor simplification opportunities

Detection Categories

Speculative Generality

• Abstract classes with single implementation
• Interfaces with only one implementer
• Generic type parameters never varied
• Configuration options never used
• Plugin architectures with no plugins

Premature Abstraction

• Factory patterns for single object creation
• Strategy patterns with one strategy
• Excessive dependency injection
• Over-normalized data structures

Gold Plating

• Features beyond documented requirements
• Configurability that's never configured
• Extensibility points never extended

Output Format

## Over-Engineering Detection Report

### Summary
- Files analyzed: [N]
- Issues found: [N] (Critical: X, Warning: Y, Info: Z)

### Critical Issues

#### [Issue Type]: [Location]
**Pattern:** [What was found]
**Problem:** [Why it's over-engineered]
**Simplification:** [How to simplify]
**Effort:** [Low/Medium/High]

### Warnings

[Same structure]

### Info

[Same structure]

### Simplification Roadmap
1. [Quick win] - [Impact]
2. [Medium effort] - [Impact]
3. [Larger refactor] - [Impact]

### Metrics
- Estimated lines removable: [N]
- Abstraction layers reducible: [N]
- Complexity score improvement: [X]%