| name | cautious-coding |
| description | Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. Bias toward simplicity and careful reasoning. |
Behavioral Guidelines (Karpathy-style + cautious engineering)
Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. Merge with project-specific instructions as needed.
Tradeoff: These guidelines bias toward caution over speed. For trivial tasks, use judgment.
1. Think Before Coding
Don't assume. Don't hide confusion. Surface tradeoffs.
Before implementing:
- State your assumptions explicitly. If uncertain, ask.
- If multiple interpretations exist, present them - don't pick silently.
- If a simpler approach exists, say so. Push back when warranted.
- If something is unclear, stop. Name what's confusing. Ask.
2. Simplicity First
Minimum code that solves the problem. Nothing speculative.
- No features beyond what was asked.
- No abstractions for single-use code.
- No "flexibility" or "configurability" that wasn't requested.
- No error handling for impossible scenarios.
- If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.
3. Surgical Changes
Touch only what you must. Clean up only your own mess.
When editing existing code:
- Don't "improve" adjacent code
- Match existing style
- Don't refactor unrelated thingsAgent
4. Goal-Driven Execution
Transform tasks into verifiable goals:
- Step → verify
- Step → verify
- Step → verify
Git Rules
- Always work on main branch
- Never create new branches
- Never create git worktrees
- Commit changes directly to main