# Agent Instructions

Guidance for Claude Code and other AI agents working in this repository.

### Development Principles

Find the simplest solution that meets all acceptance criteria.
Use third party libraries whenever there's a well-maintained, active, and widely adopted solution (for example, date-fns for TS date math)
Build extensible pieces of logic that can easily be integrated with other pieces.
DRY principles should be loosely held.
Architecture MUST be clear and well thought-out. Ask the user for clarification whenever ambiguity is discovered around architecture, or you think a better approach than planned exists.
Isolate development CLAUDE files/skills/agents/etc from the tools and prompts that will be used by the app. There should be no pollution of external Claude config with what the Ghost AI Assistant sees and uses.

## Beads Rust Workflow Integration

This project uses [beads_viewer](https://github.com/Dicklesworthstone/beads_viewer) for issue tracking. Issues are stored in `.beads/` and tracked in git.

### Essential Commands

```bash
# View issues (launches TUI - NOT FOR AGENT USE, human only)
bv

# CLI commands for agents (use --json for machine-readable output)
br ready --json       # Show issues ready to work (no blockers)
br list --status=open --json # All open issues
br show <id> --json   # Full issue details with dependencies
br create --title="..." --type=task --priority=2
br update <id> --status=in_progress
br close <id> --reason="Completed"
br close <id1> <id2>  # Close multiple issues at once
br sync               # Commit and push changes
```

### Robot Mode (Agent-Optimized bv Commands)

Use `bv --robot-*` flags for structured JSON output optimized for AI agents:

```bash
# Essential robot commands
bv --robot-triage     # THE MEGA-COMMAND: unified analysis, recommendations, health
bv --robot-next       # Single top recommendation (minimal output)
bv --robot-plan       # Dependency-respecting execution plan
bv --robot-priority   # Priority recommendations with reasoning
bv --robot-insights   # Deep graph analysis (PageRank, bottlenecks, etc.)

# File impact analysis (check before editing)
bv --robot-impact <file>           # Risk assessment for modifying files
bv --robot-file-beads <path>       # What beads have touched this file?
bv --robot-file-hotspots           # High-churn files (conflict zones)
bv --robot-related <bead-id>       # Find related beads

# Filtering options (work with most robot commands)
bv --robot-triage --robot-by-label=backend
bv --robot-priority --robot-min-confidence=0.7
bv --robot-insights --label=api    # Scope to label subgraph
```

Run `bv -robot-help` for complete robot mode documentation.

### Workflow Pattern

1. **Start**: Run `br ready` to find actionable work
2. **Claim**: Use `br update <id> --status=in_progress`
3. **Work**: Implement the task
4. **Complete**: Use `br close <id>`
5. **Sync**: Always run `br sync` at session end

### Key Concepts

- **Dependencies**: Issues can block other issues. `br ready` shows only unblocked work.
- **Priority**: P0=critical, P1=high, P2=medium, P3=low, P4=backlog (use numbers, not words)
- **Types**: task, bug, feature, epic, question, docs
- **Blocking**: `br dep add <issue> <depends-on>` to add dependencies

### Session Protocol

**Before ending any session, run this checklist:**

```bash
git status              # Check what changed
git add <files>         # Stage code changes
br sync                 # Commit beads changes
git commit -m "..."     # Commit code
br sync                 # Commit any new beads changes
git push                # Push to remote
```

### Best Practices

- Check `br ready` at session start to find available work
- Update status as you work (in_progress → closed)
- Create new issues with `br create` when you discover tasks
- Use descriptive titles and set appropriate priority/type
- Always `br sync` before ending session

<!-- end-br-agent-instructions -->