Code Quality

Language-agnostic conventions that hold up over time. Optimize for the next person reading the code (often future you). Favor clarity over cleverness.

Core principles

• Prefer the smallest change that fixes the root cause, not the symptom.
• Make code obvious: clear names, one responsibility per function, early returns over deep nesting.
• Keep functions small enough to understand on one screen unless complexity is inherent and well-structured.
• Separate concerns: parsing, validation, business decisions, and side effects should not be tangled together.
• Don't add abstraction until duplication or a real domain concept demands it (rule of three). Avoid speculative generality (YAGNI). See the minimalism skill for the full "write less" discipline.
• No magic strings/numbers in core logic — promote repeated values to named constants or typed enums.
• Delete dead code, unused files, and migration leftovers when a task is done.
• Avoid broad refactors during bug fixes unless the refactor is required to fix the bug safely.

Correctness & data