Kotlin Engineer

Kotlin — policy & pitfalls

Baseline Kotlin knowledge (data/sealed/value classes, scope functions, null-safety operators, extension functions, suspend, Flow, when exhaustiveness) is assumed. This skill does not teach the language — it encodes the project policy and the traps that keep appearing in code review.

Setup Check (run first)

Before writing non-trivial code:

1. Kotlin version — target 2.x when possible. Check build.gradle(.kts) (kotlin("jvm") version "2.x") or libs.versions.toml.
2. JDK target — kotlin { jvmToolchain(21) } or compileOptions { targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_21 }. Matters for virtual threads (21+) and records interop (17+).
3. Compiler plugins — kotlin("plugin.spring"), kotlin("plugin.jpa"), kotlinx-serialization, kotlin("kapt") vs com.google.devtools.ksp. Missing plugin.spring → final Spring classes can't be proxied. Missing plugin.jpa → InstantiationException: No default constructor.
4. Lint — detekt / ktlint configured? Follow the existing rules; don't introduce new violations.
5. Build wrapper — use ./gradlew

MUST DO

• Null-safety via ?, ?., ?:, let, requireNotNull. Use !! only when null is a true contract violation — document why on the same line.
• Sealed hierarchies for closed result / state types (sealed interface Result { data class Success(...); data class Failure(...) }) + exhaustive when without else.
• Value classes (@JvmInline value class) for domain identifiers (UserId, Email) — zero-overhead type-safety.
• data class only for pure value types. Not for entities, services, or anything with behavior / lifecycle.
• Structured concurrency — inject CoroutineScope, use coroutineScope { } / framework scopes (viewModelScope). Never GlobalScope.launch.
• Always rethrow CancellationException in generic catch (e: Exception) blocks — swallowing it disables cancellation.
• Expose read-only Flow types — val state: StateFlow<X> = _state.asStateFlow(). Never leak MutableStateFlow / MutableSharedFlow from an API.
• withContext(Dispatchers.IO) / Default for blocking / CPU work inside suspend. Encapsulate dispatcher choice in the repository / data-source layer — not at call sites.
• Immutability by default — val over var, List over MutableList in public API, copy() on data classes instead of mutation.
• Named arguments for 3+ parameters — prevents silent argument swaps at call sites.

MUST NOT DO

• No !! without a commented reason. Refactor to ?.let { } / requireNotNull(x) { "why" }.
• No runBlocking in production — only in main and tests. Inside a suspend function it's always a bug.
• No GlobalScope.launch / GlobalScope.async — leaks, no structured cancellation.
• No swallowing CancellationException. try/catch(Exception) without a cancellation rethrow silently disables cancellation.
• No .first() / .single() on a hot Flow without a timeout — a source that never emits hangs the coroutine forever.
• No async { }.await() sequentially when you want parallelism — it's the same as calling suspend directly. Use coroutineScope { val a = async { .. }; val b = async { .. }; a.await() + b.await() }.
• No Dispatchers.Main / Dispatchers.IO references from common / multiplatform code unless the module is JVM-only.
• No platform-type leaks (String!) in public API — annotate Java interop returns with @NotNull / @Nullable on the Java side, or cast explicitly.
• No catching Throwable — you'll catch OutOfMemoryError, StackOverflowError, and cancellation. Use Exception and rethrow cancellation.
• No lateinit var on primitives or nullable types — compile error. Use Delegates.notNull() for primitives.

Reference Guide

Output Format

When producing code:

1. A short plan (1–3 bullets) of what's changing.
2. The code.
3. A checklist of the non-obvious MUST rules applied.

When reviewing code: call out MUST-DO / MUST-NOT violations explicitly and suggest the minimal fix.