Integration Strength and Micro-Coupling Evaluator

Detect fine-grained coupling that weakens encapsulation across module boundaries.

When to Use

• PRs that modify public methods
• Cross-module invocation changes
• Shared state or global variable changes
• Reviews focused on encapsulation or dependency injection

Scope

• Scans: public method signatures, cross-module calls, shared mutable state, and argument structures at module boundaries.
• Exclusions: private helpers, same-class internals, and stable transport DTOs that are explicitly used as boundary contracts.
• Fallback: if coupling is borderline, apply the shared conventions fallback and downgrade to warning with low confidence unless the violation is explicit.
• Routing: defer timing and execution-order coupling to Dynamic Connascence and Execution State Evaluator and brittle seam placement in tests to Testability and Automation Architecture Evaluator.

Workflow

1. Detect content and common coupling.
   • Find direct private-state access, reflection-based bypasses, and shared mutable globals.
   • Treat these as high-severity violations.
2. Detect control coupling.
   • Flag control flags, enums, and branch-driving parameters passed across module boundaries.
   • Identify callers that dictate receiver execution paths.
3. Detect stamp coupling.
   • Find large objects passed where only a small subset of fields is used.
   • Prefer narrow DTOs or primitives.
   • Downgrade deliberate orchestration/status envelopes to warning when they are documented, stable, and limited to transport or pipeline boundaries.
4. Report findings.
   • Include files, line numbers, flags, and consumed fields.
   • Format output for CI or review bots.

Rules

• Use static analysis and AST parsing only.
• Do not execute code.
• Restrict analysis to public interfaces and cross-module boundaries.
• Ignore private helper functions inside the same class or file.
• Do not treat internal workflow status enums as a fail if they are part of an explicit, documented pipeline contract.
• Prefer warning when the coupling is intentional, bounded, and already absorbed by a public event or orchestration boundary.

Shared Conventions

• Follow the repository-wide conventions in shared-skill-conventions.
• Use the canonical output contract, severity levels, confidence rubric, routing rules, and false-positive downgrades defined there.
• If this skill is not the closest match, defer to the routing guidance in the shared conventions file.

Output

Return:

• Content and common coupling violations
• Control coupling findings
• Stamp coupling hotspots
• CI-ready pass or fail output