Project Repository Organization & Maintenance

🎯 Purpose

To establish a standardized, intuitive, and automated repository environment that minimizes technical debt, accelerates onboarding, and ensures long-term maintainability.

🏗️ Repository Structure (Standardized)

A consistent folder hierarchy is the foundation of a healthy project. Follow the "Logic over Convenience" rule.

├── .github/               # CI/CD workflows, issue templates, and PR templates
├── docs/                  # Project documentation, architecture ADRs, and assets
├── src/                   # Source code (namespaced by domain/module)
├── tests/                 # Unit, integration, and end-to-end tests
├── scripts/               # Utility scripts for setup, migration, or automation
├── data/                  # (If applicable) Sample data or local DB seeds
├── .env.example           # Template for environment variables
├── README.md              # Project entry point
└── SKILL.md               # AI Agent instructions and SOPs

🛠️ Best Practices for Maintenance

1. Git Hygiene & Branching

• Trunk-Based Development: Keep the main branch always deployable. Use short-lived feature branches.
• Atomic Commits: Each commit should represent a single logical change with a descriptive message (e.g., feat: add oauth2 provider instead of stuff).
• Conventional Commits: Use prefixes like feat:, fix:, docs:, refactor:, and chore:.

2. Automated Governance (CI/CD)

• Linting & Formatting: Enforce styles automatically (e.g., Prettier, Black, or ESLint) on every pull request.
• Dependency Management: Use automated tools (like Dependabot or Renovate) to keep libraries updated and scan for vulnerabilities.
• Pre-commit Hooks: Use pre-commit to prevent "broken" code (syntax errors or unformatted code) from ever being committed.

3. Documentation as Code

• README.md: Must include: "Getting Started," "System Requirements," and "Deployment Steps."
• ADR (Architecture Decision Records): Document why a technology or pattern was chosen to prevent "Chesterton’s Fence" dilemmas later.
• Inline Documentation: Code should be self-documenting, but complex logic requires comments explaining the intent, not the action.

🧹 Maintenance Workflow

Weekly "Gardening" Tasks

• Stale Branch Cleanup: Delete merged or abandoned branches older than 14 days.
• Issue Triage: Label new issues and close those that are no longer relevant.
• Security Review: Check for high-severity vulnerabilities in dependencies.

Monthly Review

• Performance Audit: Review CI/CD build times; optimize slow test suites.
• Documentation Sync: Ensure the docs/ folder reflects the current state of the production code.

📝 Quality Checklist for Pull Requests

• Does this PR include relevant tests?
• Is the code formatted according to project standards?
• Does this change require an update to the README or docs/?
• Are there any new environment variables that need to be added to .env.example?