# Code Standards

> >-

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-tamdogood-builder-essential-skills-code-standards`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [tamdogood](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/tamdogood)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [tamdogood](https://github.com/tamdogood)
- **Source:** https://github.com/tamdogood/builder-essential-skills/tree/main/skills/code-standards
- **Website:** https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tamng0905/builder-essential-skills

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-tamdogood-builder-essential-skills-code-standards
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Code standards — the change workflow

You are making a code change. This skill is the execution order; it is
stack-agnostic. Adapt every command to the project's actual toolchain: read the
project's own docs (README, CONTRIBUTING, `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md`, a Makefile or
package scripts) once to learn its build, test, lint, and format commands before
you start.

## Steps

1. **Orient.** Read any project lessons/gotchas file (e.g. `tasks/lessons.md`) and obey it.
   Find and read the one doc for the subsystem you're changing, not the whole tree.
2. **Plan if non-trivial** (3+ steps or an architectural choice): short plan in `tasks/todo.md` —
   files touched, tests to add, risks. Going sideways → stop and re-plan.
3. **Baseline:** get the project's build + test command green *before* touching anything. A
   pre-existing red is the first task; never build on top of a broken baseline.
4. **Implement** the smallest root-cause change. Hand-match the surrounding style.
   **Don't run a mass auto-formatter** on files you touch; it buries your real diff in noise.
5. **Test:** new behavior gets a test that fails without the change; security gates get
   negative-assertion tests (wrong token → denied, state unchanged, no data leak).
6. **Verify:** run the full check suite (build + lint + type-check + tests) until green
   before you call it "done".
7. **Self-review** your own diff as if it were someone else's PR (or invoke a review
   skill). Fix findings before presenting.
8. **Close out:** update docs in the same change; append to a lessons file if you were
   corrected or surprised; write a conventional commit message (`feat|fix|docs(scope): …`).

## Tripwires — stop and re-check the project's guidelines when you're about to…

- change a public or shared interface (API, wire format, schema) → check every caller; prefer additive changes
- add a dependency → weigh transitive weight and licenses, and whether the stdlib already covers it
- touch auth, tokens, or permissions → audit every writer and reader path, add negative tests
- write a secret to disk → use the platform's atomic create-private API, never write-then-chmod
- hold a lock across an `await`/blocking call, or read env inside logic → extract a pure decision function

## No-progress guard

The same failure surviving two fix attempts means stop: write the finding to your lessons
file, mark the item `[BLOCKED]`, and surface it. Don't thrash.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [tamdogood](https://github.com/tamdogood)
- **Source:** [tamdogood/builder-essential-skills](https://github.com/tamdogood/builder-essential-skills)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://www.npmjs.com/package/@tamng0905/builder-essential-skills

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-tamdogood-builder-essential-skills-code-standards
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/tamdogood
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.