Julia Development

Julia Package Development

Use this skill when working with Julia packages to ensure proper development workflows, testing patterns, documentation standards, and performance best practices.

Development Workflow

Environment Management

# Start Julia with project environment
julia --project=.

# Activate project in REPL
using Pkg
Pkg.activate(".")

# Install dependencies
Pkg.instantiate()

# Update dependencies (PREFERRED over direct Project.toml editing)
Pkg.update()

# Add new dependency
Pkg.add("PackageName")

# Add development dependency
Pkg.add("PackageName"; io=devnull)  # Then manually move to extras/test deps

# Check package status
Pkg.status()

IMPORTANT: Always use Pkg.update() to update packages. Never edit Project.toml directly for version updates.

Testing

# Run all tests (from project root)
julia --project=. -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.test()'

# Run tests with test environment
julia --project=test test/runtests.jl

# Run tests skipping quality checks (if supported)
julia --project=test test/runtests.jl skip_quality

Test Organization:

• Use TestItemRunner with @testitem syntax for modular testing
• Organize tests by component: test/component/, test/package/
• Package-level tests in test/package/ for quality (Aqua, DocTest, formatting)
• Use @testitem "description" begin ... end for individual test items

Example test structure:

using TestItemRunner

@testitem "Basic functionality" begin
    using MyPackage
    @test my_function(1) == 2
end

@testitem "Edge cases" begin
    using MyPackage
    @test_throws ArgumentError my_function(-1)
end

Documentation

# Build documentation locally
julia --project=docs docs/make.jl

# Build docs skipping notebooks (faster)
julia --project=docs docs/make.jl --skip-notebooks
# or via environment variable
SKIP_NOTEBOOKS=true julia --project=docs docs/make.jl

# Start Pluto server for interactive notebooks
# (check project-specific task or command)

Documentation Structure:

• Use Documenter.jl for documentation
• Auto-deployment to GitHub Pages via CI
• Structure defined in docs/pages.jl or docs/make.jl

Code Quality

# Run pre-commit hooks
pre-commit run --all-files

# JuliaFormatter (typically configured in .JuliaFormatter.toml)
# Usually handled by pre-commit hooks

Quality Checks:

• Aqua.jl tests for package quality
• JuliaFormatter.jl for code formatting
• Pre-commit hooks for automated checks

Code Style Guidelines

SciML Coding Standards

Follow SciML (Scientific Machine Learning) coding standards:

• Avoid type instability
• Ensure efficient precompilation
• Use appropriate type annotations for performance
• Write type-stable code

Type Stability:

# Good - type stable
function compute(x::Float64)
    result = 0.0  # Type is known
    for i in 1:10
        result += x * i
    end
    return result
end

# Avoid - type unstable
function compute_bad(x)
    result = 0  # Type might change
    for i in 1:10
        result = result + x * i  # Type may vary
    end
    return result
end

Formatting Rules

• Max 80 characters per line
• No trailing whitespace
• No spurious blank lines
• Use JuliaFormatter.jl for consistent formatting

Documentation Standards

Docstring Syntax

Use @doc with either raw strings or regular strings:

# For simple docstrings without LaTeX or templates
@doc "
Brief description of the function.

# Arguments
- `x`: Description of x
- `y`: Description of y

# Returns
- Description of return value

# Examples
```jldoctest
julia> my_function(1, 2)
3

" function my_function(x, y) return x + y end

For docstrings with LaTeX math

@doc raw" Computes the mathematical function:

f(x) = \int_0^x t^2 dt

Use raw strings when including LaTeX to preserve backslashes. " function math_function(x) # implementation end

### DocStringExtensions Templates

**IMPORTANT**: Template expansion rules:
- Use `@doc "` (regular string) for templates (allows expansion)
- Use `@doc """` with escaped backslashes when combining templates with LaTeX
- **NEVER** use `@doc raw"` with templates (prevents expansion)

```julia
using DocStringExtensions

# Good - template will expand
@doc "
$(TYPEDSIGNATURES)

Brief description.

# Fields
$(TYPEDFIELDS)
"
struct MyType
    "Field description"
    field::Int
end

# Good - template + LaTeX with escaped backslashes
@doc """
\$(TYPEDSIGNATURES)

Computes: ``f(x) = \\int_0^x t^2 dt``

Note the escaped backslashes in LaTeX: \\int, not \int
"""
function combined_function(x)
    # implementation
end

# Avoid - raw string prevents template expansion
@doc raw"
$(TYPEDSIGNATURES)  # This will NOT expand!
"

Documentation Structure Best Practices

• Keep interface method docstrings concise (1-2 lines)
• Use "See also" sections for cross-references
• Avoid duplication between related functions (pdf/logpdf, cdf/logcdf)
• Include mathematical formulations in main type/constructor docstrings
• Provide minimal but sufficient examples using @example blocks

Cross-referencing:

@doc "
Compute the cumulative distribution function.

See also: [`logcdf`](@ref)
"
function cdf(d::MyDist, x::Real)
    # implementation
end

@doc "
Compute the log cumulative distribution function.

See also: [`cdf`](@ref)
"
function logcdf(d::MyDist, x::Real)
    # implementation
end

Package Structure

Typical Julia package structure:

MyPackage.jl/
├── src/
│   ├── MyPackage.jl        # Main module file with exports
│   ├── component1.jl       # Component implementations
│   ├── component2.jl
│   ├── docstrings.jl       # DocStringExtensions templates
│   └── utils/
├── test/
│   ├── runtests.jl         # Main test file
│   ├── component1/         # Tests by component
│   ├── component2/
│   └── package/            # Quality tests (Aqua, formatting)
├── docs/
│   ├── make.jl             # Documentation build script
│   ├── src/                # Documentation source
│   └── pages.jl            # Page structure (optional)
├── Project.toml            # Package dependencies
└── README.md

Performance Best Practices

Type Stability

# Check type stability with @code_warntype
@code_warntype my_function(args...)

# Look for red (Any) types - indicates type instability

Precompilation

# Ensure efficient precompilation
# Use PrecompileTools.jl for complex packages
using PrecompileTools

@compile_workload begin
    # Representative workload for precompilation
    my_function(example_args...)
end

Performance Patterns

• Use in-place operations when possible (! suffix convention)
• Preallocate arrays for loops
• Use @simd, @inbounds when safe
• Consider StaticArrays.jl for small fixed-size arrays
• Profile with @time, @benchmark (BenchmarkTools.jl)

Common Dependencies and Patterns

Distributions.jl Interface

When implementing distributions:

• Implement required methods: pdf, logpdf, cdf, logcdf, quantile, rand
• Implement support methods: minimum, maximum, insupport
• Optionally implement: mean, var, std (if analytically tractable)
• Vectorization handled automatically via broadcasting
• Consider specialized batch methods: pdf!, logpdf!, cdf!

Turing.jl and AD Compatibility

Ensure compatibility with automatic differentiation:

• ForwardDiff.jl
• ReverseDiff.jl
• Zygote.jl
• Enzyme.jl

Avoid non-differentiable operations in AD-sensitive code.

Common Julia Ecosystem Tools

• Pkg: Package management
• TestItemRunner: Modern testing framework
• Documenter.jl: Documentation generation
• DocStringExtensions: Documentation templates
• JuliaFormatter.jl: Code formatting
• Aqua.jl: Package quality testing
• BenchmarkTools.jl: Performance benchmarking
• PrecompileTools.jl: Precompilation optimization

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when:

• Developing Julia packages
• Writing Julia tests
• Documenting Julia functions
• Setting up Julia package infrastructure
• Working with Distributions.jl, Turing.jl, or SciML packages
• Optimising Julia code performance

This skill provides Julia-specific development patterns. Project-specific architecture and domain knowledge should remain in project CLAUDE.md files.