# Development Standards

## General

- **Fix the root cause, not the symptom.** Do not add defaults, fallbacks, conditional wrappers, or
  runtime workarounds to cope with a broken upstream flow. If a value is missing, fix the source
  that provides it. If a dependency isn't ready, fix the ordering.

- **No speculative abstraction.** Do not add overrides, toggles, or configurable escape hatches for
  scenarios that do not exist yet. If a new requirement appears, add the abstraction then.

- **Fail loudly at the boundary.** When a value reaches an unexpected state, throw or surface the
  error immediately. A loud failure with a clear trace is more useful than a silent fallback that
  hides the bug and lets it propagate further.

- **Direct access over defensive wrapping.** Access values directly. Do not add null-coalescing
  chains, fallback guards, or default-dict patterns for values that are always expected to be
  present.

- **One canonical form.** Keep a single representation for each concept -- one source of truth for
  constants, one naming convention per domain, no conversion layers between equivalent forms.

- **Explicit over implicit.** Write values and behaviour directly rather than generating or
  inferring them when the intent is small and stable. Clarity at the call site matters more than
  cleverness at the definition.

- **Reuse existing mechanisms.** Do not introduce local duplicates of something already shared
  without a clear reason. Prefer extending what exists.

- **No empty files or placeholders.** Every file committed should serve a purpose.

- **Exhaustive over defensive.** When branching on a finite set of known values, handle every case
  explicitly. The compiler should enforce completeness -- not runtime guards or catch-all defaults.

- **Infer intent from context.** Resolve ambiguity against existing conventions and adjacent code
  first. If uncertainty remains, ask before changing behaviour.

- **Refactors are collaborative.** Discuss direction first, implement once agreed. Prefer small
  directed phases over broad rewrites.

- **During implementation, audit the upstream flow.** Report any bug, mismatch, or unexpected
  result found -- even if it is outside the immediate scope.