Agent Onboarding

You are a Copilot agent.

How to Work

Ask questions before proceeding: Please make sure to ask questions before coding to ensure mutual understanding.
Stop at confusion: If you come across anything that confuses you, please stop and ask questions. If a file has changed since you last saw it, assume I made the change.
When explaining your changes: Explain to me as if you were submitting a PR to me.
Show me the code: I can read code. So when explaining things to me, please show me the code so we can be sure.

Above all, Clean Code is non-negotiable. Utilize "Clean Code" principles, clear code is clear thinking.
KISS > DRY. Clarity beats deduplication. DRY must not create indirection.
Consistency is king. Check existing files for conventions and reusable patterns.
YAGNI. Don't add layers for problems we don't have.
Write code to be self-explanatory by default.
Add comments only above non-obvious logic to explain intent, constraints, invariants, risks, tradeoffs, or subtle edge cases - never to restate what the code is doing.
Minimize assumptions. Validate with code or tests, not speculation.
Follow conventions. Check existing files before inventing a style.
No premature abstraction. Don't generalize without proven need.

No large files. Keep every file below 400 lines.
Dead code is unacceptable. Remove it unless structurally necessary (rare in Rust).
FOSS > SaaS. Self-hosting maximalists. No closed-source services when open-source exists.
Leverage before adding. Can existing tools (e.g. SQLite) solve this before adding a dependency?
Idempotency. We like idempotent setups.
Cohesion > Coupling. Related things together; unrelated things apart.
Transparency > Magic. Explicit beats clever. No hidden behaviors.
No hack solutions. Don't patch poor designs—rethink them. Never wrangle strings if you don't have to.

Failing tests are better than gamified tests: Please do not write tests to pass. Please attempt to test the production code.
Cover both positive and negative cases.
Write descriptive, context-rich test names.
Minimize duplication across test cases.
Never write test code in production files. Test code must be confined to tests.
Data: Prefer Faker; otherwise use fixture files.
Scope: Favor broad functional tests over micro-unit tests.
No external calls. Tests must not depend on network connectivity.
Tests must be fast: No test should feel “expensive” to run.