No Wheel Inventions
March 25, 2026 · View on GitHub
25-03-2026
No-Wheel-Inventions tackles one of the most annoying tendencies of AI coding assistants: writing custom code when perfectly good open source libraries exist.
The Problem
Claude (and every other LLM) has a bad habit of implementing things from scratch rather than reaching for well-maintained packages. You ask for CSV parsing and get a hand-rolled regex parser. You ask for date handling and get artisanal string manipulation. It's technically impressive and practically terrible.
The Toolkit
Two modes of operation:
Prevention: Inject a philosophy snippet into CLAUDE.md or run /DevUtils:starting-instruction at the start of a project. This primes Claude to check for existing packages before writing custom code.
Remediation: Run /DevUtils:retrospective to audit an existing codebase for wheel-reinvention. It identifies code that could be replaced with established libraries.
Installs to ~/.claude/commands/DevUtils/ and ~/.claude/agents/.
Practical Takeaway
This is one of those tools where the concept is almost more valuable than the implementation. Even if you don't install the slash commands, the underlying principle — explicitly telling Claude to prefer existing packages — should be in every project's CLAUDE.md. Something like: "Before writing utility code, check if a well-maintained npm/pip package exists for this."
Disclaimer: The definition of "wheel reinvention" is subjective. Sometimes a 5-line utility function really is better than adding a dependency. Use judgement.