Convex Conventions

Convex conventions

These are house-style defaults, not a Convex manual. Use current official Convex skills for scaffolding, auth, migrations, performance work, components, and API mechanics; this skill adds project policy. Apply only what the requested change touches.

Authority

Verify each touched API against live Convex docs and the installed version. Read release notes before a major or minor upgrade. Live docs win over this skill; memory and prior turns do not establish current API behavior.

Layout and shared shapes

• Keep convex/ at root and never edit _generated/.
• schema.ts owns defineSchema and table declarations.
• auth.config.ts owns the Clerk JWT provider.
• Keep one module each for reusable table validators, semantic validation, auth helpers, and rate-limit configuration.
• Add crons.ts and http.ts only when used.
• Public feature surfaces and their tests are co-located.
• Define table validators once and compose them into schema, args, and returns; do not redeclare an existing shape inline.

Auth and public functions

• Clerk is the identity provider. Server code derives identity from ctx.auth.getUserIdentity() through one helper; clients never submit userId.
• Every public function authenticates at the top and declares both args and returns validators.
• Use internal functions for scheduling, sensitive side effects, and cross-function reuse that must not be public.
• Keep structural validation in validators and semantic checks such as date correctness, length caps, and sanitization in the handler.

Reads, writes, and effects

• Indexes narrow candidates; further filtering happens in code. Give indexes semantic names and avoid redundant ones.
• Cap every otherwise unbounded query with .take(); comment only when the cap is load-bearing.
• Queries are pure and deterministic: no Date.now() inside them.
• Mutations write. Actions call external systems. An action persists through an internal mutation rather than mixing the roles.
• Rate-limit every public mutation with the current @convex-dev/rate-limiter API. Token bucket suits high-frequency operations; fixed window suits low-frequency operations.

Stored data

• User-created rows use soft deletion with optional numeric deletedAt; public mutations do not hard-delete them.
• Audit trails are append-only records.
• Server metadata such as identity and timestamps comes from handler context, never client args.
• Data-at-rest schema changes use widen, migrate, then narrow through the official migration workflow.
• Aggregate additions include a backfill. Aggregate synchronization failure must not block the primary write.

Client types and components

• Derive client types from generated Doc<...> and Id<...>.
• One dedicated module re-exports semantic client aliases; app code imports there, never directly from convex/_generated, and never manually copies table shapes.
• Prefer official Convex components for existing capabilities and verify each component README. Use the official component workflow when authoring a new reusable component.

Completion

• Codegen and typecheck pass.
• Relevant function tests and the project gate pass.
• Any schema migration ran against the development deployment and its result is recorded.
• No public function lacks auth, args, or returns; no public mutation lacks rate limiting; no unbounded query lacks a cap.