A bunch of these should be enforce with linting, that way people who still hand-craft code get the same kind of feedback, e.g. Always use {}, even on a one-line "if" statement. & Keep function names short. Less than 30 characters.
Then this one really is a pattern that creates a lot of churn:
- Add a small, to the point, comment to explain what the block does and why. Use examples when possible. Propose ASCII drawings to explain complete systems.
This is a problem that people mostly have to solve themselves. Like, I've been working with Claude for almost a year now and I have never once seen it write "Arrow Anti-Pattern" code. That, and much of the rest, would be fluff in my projects. Agent instructions are best learned from experience project-by-project.
No, why should I have to remember to @ in every prompt? Or ask contributors to remember. It just makes it easier to make human mistakes. I have better things to do than micromanagement. There is huge value in auto-included context.
A bunch of these should be enforce with linting, that way people who still hand-craft code get the same kind of feedback, e.g. Always use {}, even on a one-line "if" statement. & Keep function names short. Less than 30 characters.
Then this one really is a pattern that creates a lot of churn:
- Add a small, to the point, comment to explain what the block does and why. Use examples when possible. Propose ASCII drawings to explain complete systems.
The what _is_ the code.
I would never tell an agent to write "what does the code do" comments. Their default comments are already way too fluffy.
Just this one line in AGENTS.md has given better results to reduce if not eliminate verbosity and grandeur.
**Always use ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English
Disclaimer: I saw this listed in some other HN post that I can' locate right away.
idk who came up with it first, but ASD-STE100 has been floating around more since matt pocock put it in one of his skills
I feel like claude.md is like Asimov's laws of robotics. Whatever you write there ends up eventually messing up everything.
This is a problem that people mostly have to solve themselves. Like, I've been working with Claude for almost a year now and I have never once seen it write "Arrow Anti-Pattern" code. That, and much of the rest, would be fluff in my projects. Agent instructions are best learned from experience project-by-project.
One tactic I’ve found helpful is multi pass quality improvement. First make it work. Then review for guidelines adherence. Loop until satisfied.
[delayed]
Agents.md is such a ridiculous concept, just write good contributing docs and then optionally @ the file in whatever agetn file you use.
That way everyone benefits.
No, why should I have to remember to @ in every prompt? Or ask contributors to remember. It just makes it easier to make human mistakes. I have better things to do than micromanagement. There is huge value in auto-included context.