cove

Karpathy-inspired guidelines: Think before coding, Simplicity first, Surgical changes, Goal-driven execution

Use when you have a written implementation plan to execute in a separate session with review checkpoints

Write an actionable markdown plan before implementation. Bite-sized tasks, exact paths, complete code.

Write clear Conventional Commits. Imperative subject, explain why not what, one logical change per commit.

Optimize based on measurement, never guesswork. Profile first, fix the real bottleneck, verify the win.

Refactor code without changing behavior. Small steps, green tests after every change, no mixing with feature work.

Review PRs on GitHub: read diffs, leave inline comments, approve or request changes.

GitHub PR lifecycle: branch, commit, open PR, monitor CI, merge.

Pre-commit verification: security scan, quality gates, auto-fix before committing.

Throwaway experiments to validate an idea before building. Disposable by design.

4-phase root cause debugging: understand bugs before fixing. Never guess at fixes.

TDD: enforce RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle. Tests before code, always.