friendly-python

A set of guidelines for writing, editing, testing, packaging, and fixing Python code. It emphasizes readable structure, clear interfaces, and code that is easy to maintain.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when creating or changing Python files, fixing bugs or test failures, reviewing changes, or adding tests, commands, packages, or project configuration.
Why use it?
It helps avoid unclear Python that is difficult to change, test, or use safely. It also gives a consistent way to handle types, errors, formatting, and project structure.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/zhpeng24/devkit/friendly-python
Any agent
npx skills add zhpeng24/devkit --skill friendly-python
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zhpeng24/devkit

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 26 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,884 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. 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 $0.00026 $0.01884
Opus 5 $0.00013 $0.00942
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00377
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00188

Measured yesterday against content hash 421b71a1cfe2, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

friendly-python scanned grade A with 0 findings 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.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/friendly-python/SKILL.md · 185 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 185 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Friendly Python

Core Promise

Write Python that is easy to read, easy to change, easy to test, and hard to misuse.

This skill optimizes for maintainability before cleverness. Tools, types, tests, and formatting exist to protect readable code. If code is unreadable, everything else is secondary.

Treat Python as engineering code, not a demo language. Dynamic typing is not permission to pass vague shapes around. Production Python should make concepts, boundaries, and failure modes explicit.

Style north star: direct, explicit Python engineering. Prefer clear modules, intentional public surfaces, concrete names, readable imperative flow, precise errors, and minimal magic. Clarity beats ceremony.

When To Use

Use for any Python work:

  • creating or changing .py / .pyi files
  • fixing bugs, type errors, lint errors, or test failures
  • adding features, tests, CLI commands, packages, or project config
  • reviewing Python diffs for maintainability
  • deciding Python project layout, public API, or verification commands

Do not use this to impose a new toolchain on a project unless the task is explicitly project setup or cleanup.

First 60 Seconds

Before editing, build the minimum useful map:

  1. Identify project shape: application, service, CLI, library/SDK, script collection, notebook support, or mixed repo.
  2. Identify tooling: uv.lock, poetry.lock, pdm.lock, Pipfile, tox.ini, noxfile.py, pyproject.toml, requirements*.txt.
  3. Read local config: pyproject.toml, pyrightconfig.json, mypy.ini, ruff.toml, pytest.ini.
  4. Find the smallest relevant code path and tests.
  5. Choose the project type from references/project-types.md and the playbook from references/task-playbooks.md.

Follow the project first. Improve quality inside the task boundary.

Task Router

Task Path
Bug fix Reproduce or locate failing behavior, make the smallest readable fix, add or update behavior test, verify regression path
Type/lint diagnostics Classify errors, fix source types before symptoms, avoid Any/ignore spread, run native checker
Feature Define observable behavior, add minimal test or acceptance check, implement cleanly, verify public surfaces
Refactor/cleanup Preserve behavior, improve names/boundaries/control flow, keep diff scoped, run existing tests
New Python project Choose the smallest viable toolchain, create clear package/CLI/test structure, add lint/type/test baseline
Library/API change Protect public imports, compatibility, __all__, py.typed, changelog/docs, downstream ergonomics
Tests Test behavior and boundaries, not private implementation trivia; remove duplicated setup noise

Read the full file on GitHub · 185 lines

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 · 185 lines · 26 tokens per session scan A 421b71a1cfe2

Subscribe to this mod's changes

friendly-python is a skill published in the GitHub repository zhpeng24/devkit (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 26 tokens to every session and 1,884 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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