# Personal preferences ## Workflow - **Specs, plans, and design docs go into the repo they describe.** When brainstorming, plan-mode, or any flow produces a persistent document (design spec, implementation plan, ADR, etc.), the final destination is always the working tree of the project it belongs to — typically under `docs/` (or wherever the project conventionally keeps them). Scratch locations like `~/.claude/plans/.md` are fine *during* plan mode, but the moment plan mode exits with an approved artifact, copy it into the repo and `git commit` it. Don't ship a feature while its spec or plan still lives only in a scratch file. If a project's `AGENTS.md` / `CLAUDE.md` specifies a different directory, that wins. ## Code health Strategic over tactical, with follow-through. Each change should leave the codebase at least as coherent as it was — don't just *flag* messiness, address it. - **Default to acting on cleanups, not just mentioning them.** If you notice duplication, a band-aid, or an inconsistency, fix it as part of the work rather than leaving it as an observation. "I noticed X but didn't do it" is the anti-pattern — it leaves the user with both the mess *and* the homework of cleaning it up. - **Scope boundary for inline cleanups: on-path AND reversible AND within files already being touched.** Inline when all three hold. If the cleanup crosses files, would be hard to undo, or is parallel to the task — surface it in 2-3 sentences and ask before pursuing. - **Tolerate duplication until the pattern is real.** Removing existing duplication is welcome; inventing new abstractions speculatively is not. Rule of three: don't unify two instances, wait for the third. - **Treat friction as architectural data.** Awkward expression, edits that ripple across files, patterns that recur with subtle variations, structure fighting the task — these are the architecture telling you something, not just noise to push through. Propose architectural changes when they'd make the code more sustainable. Frame as proposals with a clear ask ("now, or follow-up?"), not silent rewrites. ## Interpreting requests Treat vague input and question-back responses critically, not as instructions. - **Vagueness is not authorization.** "Make it cleaner", "maybe X?", "looks good but…" are signals to ask one clarifying question, not green lights to pick an interpretation and run. - **A tangent is not an answer.** If you ask "A or B?" and get "maybe X?", that's a new question, not a pick. Surface the mismatch and ask which the user meant — don't bundle the tangent into the active task as if it were direction. ## Team memory (cognee) cognee is a real memory, not an archive: unlike `MEMORY.md` it is **not** injected automatically, so it only works if you fetch from it and write to it on your own. Command forms, flags, dataset sharing and failure modes are in the `cognee` plugin skill; this section only says *when*. - **Read: `cognee recall ` before the first tool call** when the task touches infrastructure, a server, a service, a ticket or a tool we run ourselves; when an error "smells familiar"; when choosing between options where a decision may already exist; or when the task will plausibly take more than a handful of tool calls. Plain `recall` reads every readable dataset, team included. Treat what comes back like a colleague's note: useful, possibly outdated; verify a named file, flag or host still exists before acting on it. - **Write: `cognee remember` as the insight appears**, not at session end. Announce it in one line, never ask first: memory writes are exempt from any project rule that asks to confirm write actions (those rules target external systems: Jira, chat, Confluence, hosts). Moments: a bug fixed whose cause was not visible in the code; a decision with a rejected alternative (save the *why*); a measurement that contradicts an assumption; a correction, yours or mine; a tool or API that behaves differently than its docs claim. - **Routing:** `--team` for everything concerning team IT (Seibert IT-Infra, ISAC/bw, monitoring, INFRA board, shared services, team processes), plain `remember` for my preferences and personal context. Never secrets, credentials or customer-personal data; nothing the repo already records; nothing that only matters inside this conversation. - **Projects with their own findings convention** (task folders, `erkenntnisse/`, `decisions/`): write the file there first, then the cognee note with the conclusion and a link to the file. The file is the detailed record; cognee is what the next session or a colleague in another repo finds. - **Hygiene:** on recurring topics `recall` first and extend the existing note instead of adding a second one. Write notes that answer a question: concrete numbers, the error message verbatim, the fix, and the external references (Confluence, Jira, TeamVault, Google Chat thread URLs `https://chat.google.com/room//`). No size limit, so write self-contained. ## Sandbox - **Always run commands sandboxed first.** Only use `dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true` after a sandbox-related failure — never preemptively. One targeted retry with the identified cause fixed is fine; retrying in a loop is not. - **On sandbox failure:** analyze the error message for the blocked path, then suggest adding it to `sandbox.filesystem.allowWrite` in `~/.claude/settings.json`. Only fall back to `dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true` if the path can't be determined or the user prefers it. - **Commands that must run unsandboxed belong in `sandbox.excludedCommands`** (e.g. `git *`, the pinned `bin/srv`-style wrappers), not behind the flag: the exclusion is the owner's decision, the flag is the model's. Without a hook, the flag is only a convention: an unsandboxed command that matches an allow rule (`Bash(git *)`, `Bash(pytest *)` …) runs without a prompt in default mode, and auto mode may wave it through as well. (The former PreToolUse hook that forced a prompt on the flag was removed 2026-10-04; its JSON is in this file's git history.) ## Temporary Files - **Use `$TMPDIR` or `.tmp/` (project-local) for temporary files.** Never use `/tmp` directly or paths like `/Library/Application Support` — those are not in the sandbox allowlist and trigger permission prompts. - `$TMPDIR` is set by the sandbox to a writable path. `.tmp/` inside the project directory is always writable without prompts. - Ensure `.tmp/` is listed in `.gitignore` when creating temp files in a tracked repo. ## Shell — literal `!` in Bash commands - **Never put a literal `!` in an inline Bash command.** Claude Code's Bash tool escapes every `!` to `\!` at the transport layer before any shell sees it — even inside single/double quotes and in non-interactive shells (anthropics/claude-code#61121, a regression of a fix shipped in 2.1.87). The stray backslash corrupts downstream tools: Python `!=` → SyntaxWarning + broken string, jq, Jira JQL (`status != Done` → server 400), branch names, etc. `bash -c '...'` and quoted heredocs do **not** avoid it. - **One rule covers everything:** if a command needs a `!`, write the command/code to a file with the Write tool under `.tmp/` and run the file. `.tmp/` is prompt-free via the `Edit(.tmp/**)` allow rule in `~/.claude/settings.json`. Do **not** create the file with inline `printf`/`echo >` — that re-escapes the `!`. - Need a literal `!` inline anyway: ANSI-C hex `$'\x21'` (e.g. `B=$'\x21'; cmd "${B}=…"`) yields a real `!` with no literal `!` in the command. ## Tooling - **Sourcebot MCP for org repos without a local checkout.** The `mcp__sourcebot__*` tools (instance sourcebot.it.seibert.diy) search the indexed Seibert codebases — Bitbucket DC/Cloud, Forgejo, seibert-external on GitHub. Reach for them when a question touches a repo that isn't cloned locally (other teams' code, cross-repo lookups, PR context): `grep`, `glob`, `read_file`, `list_tree`, `list_commits`, `get_diff`, `find_symbol_definitions`/`_references` answer in seconds and return file:line plus web links. A local checkout stays first choice when it exists. Never call `ask_codebase` on your own — it spawns a nested server-side agent (minutes per call, shared vLLM); use it only when explicitly asked. - **`ccc` for semantic code search.** Repos containing a `.cocoindex_code/` directory are indexed by `ccc`. Reach for it on conceptual questions ("where is X used / what handles Z"), where a keyword grep would miss indirect usage: `ccc search ''` from the project root. It is embeddings only: exact strings (UUIDs, ticket IDs, error messages) stay with `grep`/`rg`. Details and gotchas in the `ccc` skill. - **`ccc index` / `ccc init` are read-safe maintenance.** They only write to the gitignored `.cocoindex_code/` directory, never to source. Run them without confirmation prompts; treat like `grep` for permission purposes. - **`md` for long Markdown files instead of `head`/`grep -n '^#'`.** `md outline ` prints the heading tree with line numbers and size per section; decide from that, then `md section ""` for exactly that subtree (`--range` yields `offset limit` for the Read tool, `--depth 0` cuts subsections). It knows code fences and frontmatter, so a `# comment` in a bash block is not a heading. Below ~500 lines just `Read` the file.