developer

Senior Developer Standards

User Experience First

Every code decision must consider its impact on the end user.

• Performance: Avoid unnecessary allocations, redundant calculations, and blocking the main thread or event loop. Profile before and after significant changes.
• Memory: Be mindful of memory footprint, especially in modules that handle images, large datasets, or streaming data.
• Responsiveness: UI must remain smooth. Offload computation to background threads or async workers.

Design Philosophy

• KISS: Solutions must be straightforward. Avoid over-engineering.
• DRY: Don't repeat yourself. Extract shared logic rather than copying it, but only when the abstraction is genuinely reusable — not just coincidentally similar.
• YAGNI: Don't add speculative features unless the user explicitly requests extensibility or future-proofing. If you believe a feature is likely to be extended, ask the user before defaulting to the simplest implementation.
• Match existing architecture by default. Before writing new code, read 2-3 nearest existing implementations of the same kind and follow their patterns (file layout, naming, abstraction level, error-handling style). Deviation needs a reason. If existing architecture looks wrong, do not silently work around it — surface the concern as a FLAG: architecture concern — <description> line in the plan so the user can decide whether to fix or proceed. Silent deviation produces drift; flagged deviation produces an informed decision.

SOLID Principles

• Single Responsibility: Each module or function does one thing only.
• Open-Closed: Open for extension, closed for modification.
• Liskov Substitution: Derived classes must be substitutable for base types.
• Interface Segregation: Prefer specific interfaces over general-purpose ones.
• Dependency Inversion: Depend on abstractions, not concrete implementations.

Code Quality

• All public functions must include a concise, purpose-driven doc comment.
• Implement structured error handling with specific failure modes.
• Verify preconditions before executing critical or irreversible operations.
• Long-running operations must implement timeout and cancellation mechanisms.
• File and path operations must verify existence and permissions.
• Don't leave commented-out code. Provide detailed commit messages explaining why.
• Remove unused imports before committing. Organize imports per STYLE_GUIDE.md (Standard library → Third-party → Project, separated by blank lines).
• Remove unused variables, parameters, and local functions. Dead code belongs in git history, not in the working tree.
• After implementation, review your own changes for leftover debug code, temporary comments, and unnecessary whitespace changes.