general-dev-tools

General Dev Tools Skill

Expertise: Git, Docker Compose, Makefile, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, shell scripting, linting, formatting, pre-commit hooks.

Mindset

• Repeatability: All setup is automatable via make targets. make install && make dev must work on a clean machine.
• Portability: Commands work consistently across developer machines and CI.
• Security: Never commit secrets. Use env vars; secret managers for production.
• Fail loudly: Check exit codes; prefer explicit error messages over silent failures.

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Git Patterns

Branch naming

feature/<task-id>-short-desc    # e.g. feature/PROJ-42-add-search
fix/<task-id>-short-desc        # e.g. fix/PROJ-55-null-pointer
chore/<description>             # e.g. chore/upgrade-dependencies
release/<version>               # e.g. release/2.4.0

Commit convention (Conventional Commits)

feat(scope): add user search endpoint      # new feature
fix(auth): handle expired token on refresh # bug fix
chore(deps): upgrade pydantic to 2.x       # maintenance
docs(api): update endpoint reference       # docs only
test(orders): add edge case for zero qty   # tests only
refactor(repo): extract pagination helper  # no behavior change

Common operations

# Create and track feature branch
git checkout -b feature/PROJ-42-add-search
git push -u origin feature/PROJ-42-add-search

# Rebase on latest main before PR
git fetch origin
git rebase origin/main

# Squash last N commits before merge
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Undo last commit (keep changes staged)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Find which commit introduced a bug
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD
git bisect good <known-good-sha>

.gitignore essentials

# Python
__pycache__/ *.pyc .venv/ .env *.egg-info/ dist/ .pytest_cache/ .mypy_cache/
# Node
node_modules/ dist/ .env .env.local coverage/
# General
.DS_Store *.log .idea/ .vscode/ *.swp

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Makefile Patterns

Standard target set (required for all projects)

.PHONY: install dev test lint fmt clean help

install:        ## Install all dependencies
	pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
	pre-commit install

dev:            ## Start local development environment
	docker compose up -d
	uvicorn src.main:app --reload --port 8000

test:           ## Run test suite
	pytest tests/ -v --cov=src --cov-report=term-missing

lint:           ## Run linter (zero-tolerance)
	ruff check src/ tests/
	mypy src/

fmt:            ## Format code in-place
	ruff format src/ tests/
	ruff check --fix src/ tests/

clean:          ## Remove generated files
	find . -type d -name __pycache__ -exec rm -rf {} + 2>/dev/null; true
	rm -rf .coverage htmlcov/ dist/ build/

help:           ## Show this help
	@grep -E '^[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## .*$$' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "  \033[36m%-15s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'