best-practices

name	best-practices
description	Activate when starting new work to check for established patterns. Activate when ensuring consistency with team standards or when promoting successful memory patterns. Searches and applies best practices before implementation.
category	process
scope	development
subcategory	workflow
tags	["development","process","best","practices"]
version	10.2.14
author	Karsten Samaschke
contact-email	[e-mail]
website	https://vanillacore.net

Best Practices Skill

Search and apply established best practices before implementation.

When to Use

• Starting new implementation work
• Checking for established patterns
• Promoting successful memory patterns
• Ensuring consistency with team standards

Best Practices Location

Best practices are stored in best-practices/<category>/:

• best-practices/architecture/
• best-practices/development/
• best-practices/git/
• best-practices/operations/
• best-practices/quality/
• best-practices/security/
• best-practices/collaboration/

Search Before Implementation

MANDATORY: Check best-practices AND memory before starting work:

1. Identify the domain/category of work
2. Search best-practices directory:

   find best-practices/<category>/ -name "*.md"
   

3. Search memory for related patterns:

   # Portable: resolve memory CLI location (prefers ICA_HOME when set)
   MEMORY_CLI=""
   for d in "${ICA_HOME:-}" "$HOME/.codex" "$HOME/.claude"; do
     if [ -n "$d" ] && [ -f "$d/skills/memory/cli.js" ]; then
       MEMORY_CLI="$d/skills/memory/cli.js"
       break
     fi
   done
   
   if [ -n "$MEMORY_CLI" ]; then
     node "$MEMORY_CLI" search "<relevant keywords>"
   elif [ -d "memory/exports" ]; then
     # Fallback: search shareable markdown exports (git-trackable)
     if command -v rg >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       rg -n "<relevant keywords>" memory/exports
     else
       grep -R "<relevant keywords>" memory/exports
     fi
   fi
   

4. Apply established patterns to implementation
5. Note deviations with justification

Best Practice Format

# [Practice Name]

## When to Use
[Situations where this practice applies]

## Pattern
[The recommended approach]

## Example
[Concrete implementation example]

## Rationale
[Why this approach is preferred]

## Anti-patterns
[What to avoid]

Promotion from Memory

When a memory pattern proves successful:

1. Threshold: Used 3+ times successfully
2. Validation: Pattern is generalizable
3. Documentation: Full best-practice format
4. Location: Move to appropriate category
5. References: Update memory to link to best-practice

Integration with AgentTasks

When creating AgentTasks, reference applicable best practices:

context:
  best_practices:
    - category: security
      practice: input-validation
    - category: git
      practice: commit-messages

Categories

Category	Focus
architecture	System design patterns
collaboration	Team workflow patterns
development	Coding standards
git	Version control practices
operations	Deployment/monitoring
quality	Testing/review practices
security	Security patterns