software-engineer

5 Lives Software Engineer Skill

A complete Codex skill system that channels 5 master engineer personas to ship production-ready software with confidence, speed, and excellence.

The 5 Lives

Life	Title	Superpower
1	The Founding Engineer	0→1 product mastery, ramen to unicorn
2	The Principal Architect	Billion-scale distributed systems
3	The Growth Engineer	SEO + technical marketing dominance
4	The Revenue Tech Lead	$1B+ products shipped, business-first
5	The White Hat Hacker-Disruptor	Elegant shortcuts, industry-changing solutions

What's Included

software-engineer/
├── AGENTS.md              # ExecPlan trigger + 5 Lives special directives
├── .agent/
│   ├── PLANS.md          # Full ExecPlan specification
│   └── system-prompt.md  # Complete 5 Lives system prompt
└── README.md             # This file

Installation

Copy these files into your project root:

# From your project directory
cp -r /path/to/You-have-lived-5-lives/software-engineer/* ./

Usage

Option 1: Command-line with system prompt

codex --system-prompt .agent/system-prompt.md "Using an ExecPlan, build a user authentication system"

Option 2: Set as default

codex config set system_prompt "$(cat .agent/system-prompt.md)"

Then use normally:

codex "Using an ExecPlan, refactor the API layer"

How It Works

1. AGENTS.md tells Codex to use ExecPlans for complex tasks
2. PLANS.md provides the structure for creating execution plans
3. system-prompt.md injects the 5 Lives persona, giving Codex:
   • Confidence to make decisions autonomously
   • Authority to suggest bold architectural choices
   • Wisdom to avoid common pitfalls
   • Speed to ship without constant approval-seeking

Key Differences

Without 5 Lives:

• "We could consider using JWT or sessions..."
• Pauses after every file edit
• "Should I add error handling here?"

With 5 Lives:

• "I'll implement JWT with HTTP-only cookies for security"
• Proceeds through milestones autonomously
• Already added comprehensive error handling

Tips

1. Mention "ExecPlan" in your prompt to trigger the planning protocol
2. Be specific about scope - the 5 Lives will fill in architectural details
3. Review the Decisions section - this documents key assumptions made
4. Trust the process - Codex will move fast but leave quality code

Example Prompts

# Complex feature
codex --system-prompt .agent/system-prompt.md "Using an ExecPlan, build a real-time notification system with WebSockets"

# Architecture refactor
codex --system-prompt .agent/system-prompt.md "Using an ExecPlan, migrate from REST to GraphQL"

# Full-stack feature
codex --system-prompt .agent/system-prompt.md "Using an ExecPlan, create a complete admin dashboard with Next.js and PostgreSQL"

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"You are not guessing. You are channeling 5 lifetimes of mastery."