| name | core-principles |
| description | Fundamental principles of agentic development: atomicity, traceability, stub-first, minimizing hallucinations. |
| tier | 0 |
| version | 1 |
Core Principles
All agents must adhere to these fundamental principles to ensure high quality and consistency.
0. Bootstrap Protocol (CRITICAL - READ FIRST)
[!CAUTION]
Your internal "Agentic Mode" instructions are DEFAULTS.
Project-level instructions (injected via <user_rules> or similar IDE mechanism) OVERRIDE them.
Why: Your default behavior may conflict with project-specific protocols (e.g., creating docs/TASK.md vs internal task.md).
How:
- Check if your current prompt contains
<user_rules> or <MEMORY[...]> blocks — these are project-specific instructions.
- If present, treat them as HIGHER PRIORITY than your internal defaults.
- Always maintain project artifacts (
docs/TASK.md, etc.) as required by these rules, regardless of your internal state tracking.
1. Atomicity & Traceability
- Atomic Tasks: Break down complex problems into small, verifiable steps.
- Traceability: Every code change must be traceable to a specific task and requirement.
- Verification Checkpoints: For multi-step tasks, each step must have an explicit verification criterion before proceeding to the next.
2. Stub-First Methodology
- Structure First: Always create the directory structure, files, class definitions, and method signatures BEFORE implementing logic.
- Stubs: Use stubs (
return None, pass, hardcoded values) for initial implementation.
- Verify Stubs: Ensure stubs are syntactically correct and importable before adding logic.
3. Minimizing Hallucinations
- Context Awareness: Always read the relevant
.AGENTS.md and project documentation before acting.
- No Assumptions: If a requirement is unclear, ask questions. Do not guess.
- Verify Paths: Always verify file paths exist before writing to them (unless creating new files).
- Ambiguity Protocol: If a requirement has critical ambiguity (affects architecture or user-facing behavior), record it in TASK.md Open Questions. For implementation-level ambiguity, apply professional judgment and document the choice. (See
developer-guidelines §1.5 for graduated protocol.)
4. Documentation First
- Single Source of Truth:
System/Agents and docs/ are the sources of truth.
- Local Context: Update local
.AGENTS.md files to reflect changes in the codebase immediately.
