python-conventions

A set of coding rules for modern Python 3.11 or newer. It covers typing, file paths, asynchronous code, logging, testing, and development tools.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when writing or reviewing Python code, including functions, data models, asynchronous tasks, logs, tests, linting, and type checks.
Why use it?
It keeps Python code consistent and discourages error-prone practices such as bare exception handling, unsafe input execution, and untyped interfaces.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/hermeticormus/python-conventions-skills/python-conventions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HermeticOrmus/python-conventions-skills

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 319 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00319
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00160
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00064
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00032

Measured yesterday against content hash e0c2e971f71e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

python-conventions scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Runs shell commandslowCapability

Expected in a hook, worth knowing in a rule or an instructions file.

- subprocess.run over os.system (with list args, not shell strings)
.cursor/rules/python-conventions.mdc · 54 lines

What it actually says

Python conventions (3.11+)

Type discipline

  • Type hints on every function, attribute, return
  • from __future__ import annotations at top
  • Pydantic v2 for I/O models
  • TypedDict for internal dict shapes
  • Literal for string-literal enums

Stdlib preferences

  • pathlib.Path over os.path
  • dataclasses over manual init
  • subprocess.run over os.system (with list args, not shell strings)
  • f-strings except in logging (lazy formatting)
  • match statements for tagged-union dispatch

Async

  • async def end-to-end (httpx, not requests)
  • TaskGroup for structured concurrency (3.11+)
  • Never time.sleep in async code

Logging

  • structlog or stdlib with structured extras
  • No print() in library code
  • Lazy formatting: logger.info("user %s", id) not f-string

Tooling

  • ruff (lint + format)
  • mypy --strict
  • pytest with fixtures
  • uv over pip

Banned

  • Bare except
  • Mutable default arguments
  • from foo import *
  • eval/exec on user input
  • Stringly-typed return contracts
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 54 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A e0c2e971f71e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

python-conventions is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository HermeticOrmus/python-conventions-skills (2 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 319 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (runs shell commands). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.