"Absolute minimum" in practice usually means hard-coding a special case/workaround directly into a live prod instance. That is the quickest and 99% of the time

"Absolute minimum" in practice usually means hard-coding a special case/workaround directly into a live prod instance. That is the quickest and 99% of the time won't cause any operational issues in the short-term. It happens all the time and contributes enormously to technical debt.