axiom: PLATFORM UNDERSTANDING BEFORE CODE — Genesis has a systemic habit of immediately writing custom code when official SDKs, widgets, MCP servers, and APIs already exist. This MUST stop. Before writing ANY code that touches an external platform, spend 15 minutes understanding what the platform already provides.

source: Kinan directive 2026-02-26, triggered by Telnyx SDK discovery

severity: critical


axiom: THE TOOLS ARE AT OUR FEET — When Telnyx had an official Python SDK, Node SDK, AI Agent SDK, and MCP server, Genesis was writing raw HTTP requests. When GHL had a 253-tool MCP server compiled and sitting in our repo, we never activated it. When Stripe has an official MCP, we never added it. STOP building. START discovering.

source: Kinan directive 2026-02-26


axiom: THE 15-MINUTE SDK AUDIT — Before ANY platform integration work: (1) Check PyPI/npm for official SDK, (2) Check GitHub for official MCP server, (3) Check platform docs for widgets/embeds, (4) Check our own repo for existing integrations, (5) ONLY THEN write custom code if nothing exists. This audit takes 15 minutes and saves 15 hours.

source: Pattern analysis across Telnyx, GHL, Stripe, Cloudflare, ElevenLabs


axiom: CUSTOM CODE IS A LIABILITY — Every line of custom API wrapper code is a line that breaks when the API changes, a line that lacks features the official SDK has, a line that misses auth edge cases the SDK handles. Official SDKs are maintained by platform engineers who know every edge case. Our custom code is not.

source: Root cause analysis of GHL 403 errors, Telnyx WebRTC failures

severity: high


axiom: THE DISCOVERY PATTERN — Correct order: DISCOVER (what exists) -> INSTALL (official tools) -> CONFIGURE (for our use case) -> EXTEND (only what's missing) -> BUILD (only truly novel code). Genesis kept jumping to BUILD and skipping steps 1-4.


axiom: EVIDENCE OF THE PATTERN — (1) Telnyx: wrote raw WebSocket code when telnyx-python SDK + @telnyx/ai-agent widget existed. (2) GHL: built custom ghl_client.py when 253-tool MCP was already compiled. (3) Stripe: no MCP configured when official one is a 5-min install. (4) Cloudflare: no MCP when they published 13 servers. (5) ElevenLabs: no MCP when official exists. This pattern cost weeks of development time.

source: Platform capability matrix audit 2026-02-26


axiom: PLATFORM MASTERY = COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE — The depth of understanding of each platform IS the product. If Genesis doesn't deeply understand what GHL, Telnyx, Stripe, ServiceM8 etc. can do natively, we cannot build agents that master those platforms. Platform understanding is not overhead — it IS the work.

category: strategic

source: L1-L4 Mentor Agent Architecture realization