Depends on your stage, but here's what I learned:

I built AgentGuard (AI security SDK) in 3 weeks with "move fast" mentality. Shipped to npm/PyPI with minimal tests. Got first users.

Then reality hit: - Bug reports from production - Can't add features without breaking things - Spending more time fixing than building

Spent 2 weeks refactoring: - Added 500+ tests - Proper TypeScript types - Clean architecture

Result: 10x faster development now. New features in hours, not days.

My take: Code quality is an investment. Skip it early to validate. But once you have users, pay the debt fast. The interest compounds quickly.

> I think there may be some simpler tricks worth trying first, like perhaps giving LLMs a means to "visualize" the graph of components in a codebase

Sounds like a job for... AI!

If only we had some...