compact-reviewerbest-practices

name	compact-reviewer:best-practices
description	Use when reviewing Compact contracts for idiomatic patterns, learning recommended practices, or identifying common mistakes to avoid in Midnight smart contract development.

Best Practices Skill

Guidance on idiomatic Compact patterns and common mistakes to avoid.

When to Use

This skill activates for queries about:

• Idiomatic Compact code
• Best practices and conventions
• Common mistakes
• Recommended patterns
• Library usage

Trigger words: best practices, idiomatic, convention, pattern, recommended, should, ought

Quick Reference

Idiomatic Patterns

Pattern	Good	Avoid
Authorization	require_owner() helper	Inline auth in every circuit
Constants	Named constants	Magic numbers
Error handling	Descriptive assertions	Silent failures
State access	Controlled via helpers	Direct ledger access everywhere
Naming	verb_noun for circuits	Cryptic abbreviations

Common Mistakes

// ❌ Missing language pragma
// Should be at the top of every file
export circuit example(): [] { }

// ✅ With pragma
pragma language_version >= 0.18.0;
export circuit example(): [] { }

// ❌ Not using Counter for counts
ledger count: Cell<Uint<64>>;
export circuit increment(): [] {
    count.write(count.read() + 1);
}

// ✅ Using Counter ADT
ledger count: Counter;
export circuit increment(): [] {
    count.increment(1);
}

Review Process

1. Pragma and Imports

Check file structure:

• Pragma present and version specified
• Imports at top (when supported)
• Logical ordering of declarations

2. Type Choices

Verify appropriate types:

• Counter for counts
• Map for key-value pairs
• Set for membership
• Cell for single values
• Vector for fixed-size arrays

3. Pattern Compliance

Check against idioms:

• Authorization extracted to helpers
• Constants defined at top
• Consistent naming
• Documented public interfaces

References

• Idioms - Idiomatic patterns
• Common Mistakes - Mistakes to avoid

Related Skills

• code-quality - Code organization
• compact-core/language-reference - Language features