Development Workflow
This guide covers the development process, planning strategies, and workflow best practices for Waldur HomePort.
Philosophy
Core Beliefs
- Incremental progress over big bangs - Small changes that compile and pass tests
- Learning from existing code - Study and plan before implementing
- Pragmatic over dogmatic - Adapt to project reality
- Clear intent over clever code - Be boring and obvious
Simplicity Means
- Single responsibility per function/class
- Avoid premature abstractions
- No clever tricks - choose the boring solution
- If you need to explain it, it's too complex
Process
1. Planning & Staging
Break complex work into 3-5 stages. Document in IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md
:
1 2 3 4 5 |
|
- Update status as you progress
- Remove file when all stages are done
2. Implementation Flow
- Understand - Study existing patterns in codebase
- Test - Write test first (red)
- Implement - Minimal code to pass (green)
- Refactor - Clean up with tests passing
- Commit - With clear message linking to plan
3. When Stuck (After 3 Attempts)
CRITICAL: Maximum 3 attempts per issue, then STOP.
- Document what failed:
- What you tried
- Specific error messages
-
Why you think it failed
-
Research alternatives:
- Find 2-3 similar implementations
-
Note different approaches used
-
Question fundamentals:
- Is this the right abstraction level?
- Can this be split into smaller problems?
-
Is there a simpler approach entirely?
-
Try different angle:
- Different library/framework feature?
- Different architectural pattern?
- Remove abstraction instead of adding?
Decision Framework
When multiple valid approaches exist, choose based on:
- Testability - Can I easily test this?
- Readability - Will someone understand this in 6 months?
- Consistency - Does this match project patterns?
- Simplicity - Is this the simplest solution that works?
- Reversibility - How hard to change later?
Project Integration
Learning the Codebase
- Find 3 similar features/components
- Identify common patterns and conventions
- Use same libraries/utilities when possible
- Follow existing test patterns
Important Reminders
NEVER:
- Use
--no-verify
to bypass commit hooks - Disable tests instead of fixing them
- Commit code that doesn't compile
- Make assumptions - verify with existing code
ALWAYS:
- Commit working code incrementally
- Update plan documentation as you go
- Learn from existing implementations
- Stop after 3 failed attempts and reassess