symbiote-dna

name	symbiote-dna
description	Manage Symbiote's Developer DNA — the learned coding preferences, style rules, and anti-patterns that persist across sessions. This skill should be used when the user asks to "show my coding preferences", "manage DNA", "update my coding style", "what are my coding rules", "switch DNA profile", "export DNA", "import DNA profile", or "share coding preferences".

Symbiote Developer DNA

Manage developer coding preferences that Symbiote learns and enforces across sessions.

What is Developer DNA

DNA entries are coding rules Symbiote tracks with confidence scores. They have:

• rule — the specific coding preference
• reason — why it matters
• category — formatting, patterns, architecture, workflow, testing, tooling, ai-collaboration
• confidence — 0.0 to 1.0 (auto-promoted as patterns are observed)
• applies_to — language/framework scope
• source — explicit (user-stated), correction (from feedback), observed (from code patterns)

Commands

View Current DNA

Use the get_developer_dna MCP tool. Filter by category:

get_developer_dna({ category: "formatting" })
get_developer_dna({ category: "patterns" })
get_developer_dna({})  // all entries

Record a New Preference

Use the record_instruction MCP tool:

record_instruction({
    rule: "Always use early returns over nested if-else",
    reason: "Reduces cognitive load and keeps functions flat",
    category: "patterns",
    applies_to: ["typescript", "javascript"],
    source: "explicit"
})

CLI Profile Management

npx -y symbiote-cli dna              # Show active profile summary
npx -y symbiote-cli dna list          # List all profiles
npx -y symbiote-cli dna switch        # Switch active profile
npx -y symbiote-cli dna export        # Export profile to .dna.json
npx -y symbiote-cli dna import        # Import a shared profile
npx -y symbiote-cli dna diff          # Compare two profiles

Export and Share

Export the current profile for team sharing:

npx -y symbiote-cli dna export

This creates a .dna.json file that teammates can import:

npx -y symbiote-cli dna import path/to/.dna.json

Compare Profiles

Diff two profiles to see divergence:

npx -y symbiote-cli dna diff

Output

When showing DNA, format as a clean grouped list:

## Developer DNA — {profile name}

### Formatting ({count})
- Use 4-space indentation everywhere (confidence: 1.0)
- Single quotes for strings (confidence: 0.9)

### Patterns ({count})
- Prefer early returns over nesting (confidence: 1.0)
- const over let, never var (confidence: 0.8)

### Architecture ({count})
- ...