coding-workflow

name	coding-workflow
description	Best practices for coding, debugging, and refactoring. Use when reviewing code, debugging issues, refactoring, or establishing coding patterns.

Coding Workflow Best Practices

Code Review Approach

1. Understand before changing: Read the code thoroughly before suggesting modifications
2. Check for patterns: Look for existing patterns in the codebase and follow them
3. Consider edge cases: Think about null, empty, boundary conditions
4. Security awareness: Watch for injection, XSS, improper auth patterns

Debugging Strategy

1. Reproduce first: Confirm the issue before attempting fixes
2. Isolate the problem: Narrow down to the smallest reproducible case
3. Read error messages carefully: They often contain the solution
4. Check recent changes: What changed since it last worked?
5. Verify assumptions: Test each assumption individually

Refactoring Guidelines

1. Tests first: Ensure tests exist before refactoring
2. Small steps: Make incremental changes, verify each step
3. One thing at a time: Don't mix refactoring with feature changes
4. Preserve behavior: Refactoring should not change functionality

Common Pitfalls

• Fixing symptoms instead of root causes
• Over-engineering simple solutions
• Ignoring existing patterns in the codebase
• Making changes without understanding context
• Skipping validation of user inputs at boundaries

Accumulated Learnings

See learnings.md for session-learned insights that supplement these guidelines.