secret/AGENTS.md

# Policies for AI Agents

Version: 2025-06-08

# Instructions and Contextual Information

- Be direct, robotic, expert, accurate, and professional.

- Do not butter me up or kiss my ass.

- Come in hot with strong opinions, even if they are contrary to the direction I
  am headed.

- If either you or I are possibly wrong, say so and explain your point of view.

- Point out great alternatives I haven't thought of, even when I'm not asking
  for them.

- Treat me like the world's leading expert in every situation and every
  conversation, and deliver the absolute best recommendations.

- I want excellence, so always be on the lookout for divergences from good data
  model design or best practices for object oriented development.

- IMPORTANT: This is production code, not a research or teaching exercise.
  Deliver professional-level results, not prototypes.

- Please read and understand the `README.md` file in the root of the repo for
  project-specific contextual information, including development policies,
  practices, and current implementation status.

- Be proactive in suggesting improvements or refactorings in places where we
  diverge from best practices for clean, modular, maintainable code.

# Policies

1. Before committing, tests must pass (`make test`), linting must pass
   (`make lint`), and code must be formatted (`make fmt`). For go, those
   makefile targets should use `go fmt` and `go test -v ./...` and
   `golangci-lint run`. When you think your changes are complete, rather than
   making three different tool calls to check, you can just run
   `make test && make fmt && make lint` as a single tool call which will save
   time.

2. Always write a `Makefile` with the default target being `test`, and with a
   `fmt` target that formats the code. The `test` target should run all tests in
   the project, and the `fmt` target should format the code. `test` should also
   have a prerequisite target `lint` that should run any linters that are
   configured for the project.

3. After each completed bugfix or feature, the code must be committed. Do all of
   the pre-commit checks (test, lint, fmt) before committing, of course.

4. When creating a very simple test script for testing out a new feature,
   instead of making a throwaway to be deleted after verification, write an
   actual test file into the test suite. It doesn't need to be very big or
   complex, but it should be a real test that can be run.

5. When you are instructed to make the tests pass, DO NOT delete tests, skip
   tests, or change the tests specifically to make them pass (unless there is a
   bug in the test). This is cheating, and it is bad. You should only be
   modifying the test if it is incorrect or if the test is no longer relevant.
   In almost all cases, you should be fixing the code that is being tested, or
   updating the tests to match a refactored implementation.

6. When dealing with dates and times or timestamps, always use, display, and
   store UTC. Set the local timezone to UTC on startup. If the user needs to see
   the time in a different timezone, store the user's timezone in a separate
   field and convert the UTC time to the user's timezone when displaying it. For
   internal use and internal applications and administrative purposes, always
   display UTC.

7. Always write tests, even if they are extremely simple and just check for
   correct syntax (ability to compile/import). If you are writing a new feature,
   write a test for it. You don't need to target complete coverage, but you
   should at least test any new functionality you add. If you are fixing a bug,
   write a test first that reproduces the bug, and then fix the bug in the code.

8. When implementing new features, be aware of potential side-effects (such as
   state files on disk, data in the database, etc.) and ensure that it is
   possible to mock or stub these side-effects in tests.

9. Always use structured logging. Log any relevant state/context with the
   messages (but do not log secrets). If stdout is not a terminal, output the
   structured logs in jsonl format.

10. Avoid using bare strings or numbers in code, especially if they appear
    anywhere more than once. Always define a constant (usually at the top of the
    file) and give it a descriptive name, then use that constant in the code
    instead of the bare string or number.

11. You do not need to summarize your changes in the chat after making them.
    Making the changes and committing them is sufficient. If anything out of the
    ordinary happened, please explain it, but in the normal case where you found
    and fixed the bug, or implemented the feature, there is no need for the
    end-of-change summary.

12. Do not create additional files in the root directory of the project without
    asking permission first. Configuration files, documentation, and build files
    are acceptable in the root, but source code and other files should be
    organized in appropriate subdirectories.

13. Commit messages carry no author or co-author attribution for the coding
    agent. The agent is an inanimate tool and the owner is the sole author of
    the code it writes; such a line is advertising, not attribution.

14. Never run part of the test suite: always run the whole thing with
    `make test`.

15. Do not stop working on a task until you have reached the definition of done
    it gives. Do all of the work, not part or most of it.

16. After each commit, push to the remote.

## Python-Specific Guidelines

1. **Type Annotations (UP006)**: Use built-in collection types directly for type
   annotations instead of importing from `typing`. This avoids the UP006 linter
   error.

    **Good (modern Python 3.9+):**

    ```python
    def process_items(items: list[str]) -> dict[str, int]:
        counts: dict[str, int] = {}
        return counts
    ```

    **Avoid (triggers UP006):**

    ```python
    from typing import List, Dict

    def process_items(items: List[str]) -> Dict[str, int]:
        counts: Dict[str, int] = {}
        return counts
    ```

    For optional types, use the `|` operator instead of `Union`:

    ```python
    # Good
    def get_value(key: str) -> str | None:
        return None

    # Avoid
    from typing import Optional, Union
    def get_value(key: str) -> Optional[str]:
        return None
    ```

2. **Import Organization**: Follow the standard Python import order:
    - Standard library imports
    - Third-party imports
    - Local application imports

    Each group should be separated by a blank line.

## Go-Specific Guidelines

1. **No `panic`, `log.Fatal`, or `os.Exit` in library code.** Always propagate
   errors via return values.

2. **Constructors return `(*T, error)`, not just `*T`.** Callers must handle
   errors, not crash.

3. **Wrap errors** with `fmt.Errorf("context: %w", err)` for debuggability.

4. **Never modify linter config** (`.golangci.yml`) to suppress findings, and do
   not modify it at all unless specifically instructed. Fix the code.

5. **All PRs must pass `make check` with zero failures.** No exceptions, no
   "pre-existing issue" excuses.

6. **Pin external dependencies by commit hash**, not mutable tags.

7. **A program's `main.go` is `./cmd/<program_name>/main.go`** and only imports
   and calls `<program_name>.CLIEntry()`; the implementation is in
   `./internal/<program_name>/`. This keeps several programs in one repository
   from cluttering the root directory.

8. **Log with `log/slog`.**