Developer Uses Contract-First Approach to Keep Weekend Coding Project Minimal

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A developer shared a structured weekend build log describing how they constrained a side project by writing a strict status contract before allowing any code to be written. The contract, saved as STATUS_CONTRACT.md, limited the weekend's scope to a single Make command that outputs one JSON object to stdout and returns a clean exit code. A minimal Python script and a unittest-based test were written in a fixed sequence — contract first, failing test second, then implementation — to prevent scope creep. The developer explicitly banned HTTP servers, background workers, new config files, and UI templates for the weekend. Rejected ideas such as a React dashboard, WebSocket feed, and FastAPI health route were logged in a separate OUT_OF_SCOPE.md file to keep the agent and workflow focused.

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