Skill file docs about how to write prose, names, and to prioritize the data model (#7814)

Largely about writing less, and defining what is worth talking about and
what is not.
This commit is contained in:
Dana Jansens
2026-09-21 17:48:35 +00:00
committed by GitHub
parent 76e7fc5900
commit fa12d9ded2
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@@ -33,6 +33,87 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
- **Python**: Use `pre-commit run black --files <file.py>` to format Python
files.
## Comments
- **Describe the code that is there.** A comment should explain what the
current code does or why it is the way it is, not narrate what the code used
to be. Do not add a comment to justify a deletion or explain that something
is no longer necessary; a reader of the new code has no idea what is being
contrasted against, and the comment rots as soon as the old shape is
forgotten. Put that reasoning in the commit message instead.
- **Do not introduce a local variable just to host a comment.** If a call
argument reads clearly on its own, inline it rather than naming it so that a
comment has somewhere to attach.
- **Lead with a plain summary.** Start a doc comment with a direct statement
of what the function does or returns, such as "Returns true if the InstKind
is a singleton." Put nuance in a following sentence rather than qualifying
the summary into something harder to read.
- **Re-read a comment before updating it.** When a symbol is renamed or
changes meaning, a comment that mentions it is not automatically stale. Work
out what the comment actually asserts first: it may be describing what the
code _uses_, which is still true, and rewriting it loses information.
## Documentation
This covers standalone prose: `/docs`, `README.md` files, and the skill files
under `.agents/skills`.
- **Be true of the tree it lands in.** Documentation shipping in the same
commit as the code it describes should name that code freely. Documentation
that lands separately must not: a reader who greps for an identifier from an
unlanded change finds nothing, and a claim that only holds after that change
is false until it lands. This is easy to get wrong when writing up a lesson
while the change that taught it is still in flight.
- **Use placeholders for illustrations.** When an example only needs to show a
shape, name it `Foo` rather than reaching for a real symbol. Save real
identifiers for documenting that identifier, where going stale is at least
detectable.
- **Make each point stand alone.** A reader has none of the discussion that
produced it. State the rule, and enough of the reason to apply it, without
assuming knowledge of the change that motivated it.
## Naming
- **A name is a claim, so keep it true.** When a change invalidates the
invariant a name describes, rename it in the same change. A factory called
`MakeSingletonFooId` has to be renamed once `Foo` is no longer a singleton,
even though nothing forces you to.
- **Types in a signature are part of the claim.** A function returning the id
of a namespace should return `InstId`, not `TypeInstId`, because a namespace
is not a type. Do not let a convenient wider or narrower id type imply
something false.
- **Delete a predicate whose name stops distinguishing anything.** If a change
widens a test so that it no longer says what its name implies, remove it and
let callers use the underlying test, rather than keeping a wrapper that
sounds meaningful. What callers actually want is often the inverse, and is
worth adding under its own name.
- **Name a variable for its role, not its representation.** If the role a
value plays is unchanged, keep its name even when a change means it is now
held or spelled differently.
## Commit descriptions
- **Say what the change is, not how you made it.** Describe the resulting
code. Only describe process when the process is more interesting than the
change, as with a large mechanical transformation.
- **Do not narrate your own work.** Statements like "each such site was
audited" or "we investigated every caller" describe effort, not the change.
- **Omit routine mechanical steps.** Do not mention running the testdata
autoupdater or the formatter. Every change is expected to include those.
- **Do not enumerate each edit.** Describe the change as a whole rather than
listing every function or file touched; the diff already lists them.
- **Use the project's terms precisely.** Reach for the term of art the
codebase uses. Calling something a "type alias" or a "namespace" when it is
a named scope misleads, and is worse than a vaguer but accurate word.
- **Scope claims to what changed.** Say the specific thing that is now true,
rather than a broader statement that happens to contain it.
## Design
- **Do not distort the data model to improve output.** If printed or golden
output is undesirable, change the printer, not the data structures that
feed it.
## Style Guides
- **C++ style**: Follow the