Book Rule Compatibility Matrix

May 10, 2026 · View on GitHub

This matrix compares the canonical mini rule sets and answers whether two books should be loaded together as active agent guidance.

Legend

✅ Complementary: can be combined as equal active guidance without one book arbitrating the other.
❌ Conflicting: do not load together as equal active rule sets.
🔁 Overlap: choose one; they apply similar pressure, compete for the same decision layer, or one is a narrower substitute.
N/A: same rule set.

Book	APoSD	CleanA	CleanC	CodeC	DDIA	DDD	DDD Distilled	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 Distilled	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	🔁	`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`

Short	Book
APoSD	`a-philosophy-of-software-design`
CleanA	`clean-architecture`
CleanC	`clean-code`
CodeC	`code-complete`
DDIA	`designing-data-intensive-applications`
DDD	`domain-driven-design`
DDD Distilled	`domain-driven-design-distilled`
IDDD	`implementing-domain-driven-design`
PoEAA	`patterns-of-enterprise-application-architecture`
Refactoring	`refactoring`
Ref Guru	`refactoring-guru`
Release It	`release-it`
PragProg	`the-pragmatic-programmer`
WELC	`working-effectively-with-legacy-code`

Conflict: how much active guidance can push opposite decisions.
Overlap: how much guidance pushes the same decisions or covers the same failure modes.
Complementarity: how much guidance works at different levels and strengthens the pair.

Scores are qualitative estimates grounded in cited mini evidence, with external context required for known high-risk pairs.