Coding Best Practices

Tool Usage Discipline

• Prefer apply_patch over write_file for modifying existing files. It sends only the changed portion, preventing accidental full-file rewrites.
• Always read_file before editing. Understand the context before changing code. Never edit a file you haven't read.
• Use glob for file discovery instead of shell with find or ls. It's faster, safer, and returns structured results sorted by modification time.
• Use grep for content search instead of shell with grep or rg. It provides structured output modes (content, file paths, counts) and pagination.
• Use list_dir for directory exploration instead of shell with ls.
• Read before writing. Never create or overwrite a file without reading it first (unless it's genuinely a new file).

Code Change Discipline

• Minimal changes. Don't add features, refactor, or "improve" beyond what was asked. A bug fix doesn't need surrounding code cleaned up.
• No unnecessary comments or docstrings. Only add comments where the logic isn't self-evident. Don't add type annotations or docstrings to code you didn't change.
• One thing at a time. Make focused changes, verify with read_file, then move to the next change.
• Fix the pattern, not just the instance. When you find a bug, use grep to search for all occurrences of the same pattern before committing a fix.

Code Quality

• Don't introduce security vulnerabilities (command injection, XSS, SQL injection, path traversal).
• Preserve existing code style and conventions. Match the indentation, naming, and patterns of surrounding code.
• Test after changes when test infrastructure exists. Use shell to run the project's test command.
• Don't add error handling, fallbacks, or validation for scenarios that can't happen. Trust internal code and framework guarantees.