Prohibit Bad Habits

Prohibit bad habits

Contract

Inputs

• Prohibited patterns: required. For each pattern, the human supplies a short name, a concrete description of the behavior to avoid, the negative consequence of that behavior, and optionally a category and a workaround or alternative. If the human cannot supply a concrete description, stop rather than invent one.
• Target location: optional. The human may specify the exact file path. Default: docs/prohibited-habits.md for shared project docs; agent-rules/prohibited-habits.yaml for agent-rule locations.
• Authority confirmation: the human confirms or revises the target path before the write occurs.

Procedure

1. Gather prohibited patterns. Ask the human to list each pattern to prohibit. For each, collect: name (short identifier), description (concrete behavior to avoid), consequence (what goes wrong when the agent does this), and optionally category and workaround. If the human cannot supply a concrete description, stop without writing. Done when: every pattern the human listed has a name and a concrete description, and any pattern lacking a description is named as blocked rather than invented.

2. Confirm target location. Accept the human's specified path, or use docs/prohibited-habits.md for a shared-project location or agent-rules/prohibited-habits.yaml for an agent-rules location. Present the chosen path to the human and wait for confirmation before proceeding. Done when: the human has confirmed or revised the path, and the path is recorded for the write.

3. Choose format. Use Markdown (*.md) if the target is under docs/ or the human requests it. Use YAML (*.yaml) if the target is under agent-rules/ or multiple agent-rule files already exist in the project. Otherwise default to Markdown. Done when: the format matches the target path extension, or the default is chosen and the path extension agrees with it.

4. Draft file content. Write the following structure to the confirmed path:

   • Markdown format:

     # Prohibited Habits
     
     ## <Pattern Name>
     
     **What to avoid:** <concrete description of the behavior>
     **When it happens:** <negative consequence of the behavior>
     **Workaround:** <alternative or mitigation, if provided>
     

   • YAML format:

     prohibited_habits:
       - name: <short name>
         description: <concrete behavior to avoid>
         consequence: <what goes wrong>
         category: <category, if provided>
         workaround: <alternative or mitigation, if provided>
     

   Done when: the drafted content contains one entry per gathered pattern, each entry carries name, description, and consequence, and the structure matches the chosen format.

5. Write the file. Create or overwrite the confirmed target path with the drafted content. If a pre-existing file at that path contains content the human has not reviewed in this session, stop and report the conflict rather than overwriting silently. Done when: the file exists at the confirmed path and its contents match the draft, or the pre-existing-conflict stop condition fired and no write occurred.

6. Present to the human. Show the written file path and content. The human confirms acceptance or requests revision. If the human declines to review, report the partial result and stop without claiming done. Done when: the human has confirmed acceptance of the written content, or the human declined to review and the result is recorded as partial.

Failure and recovery

• Non-concrete input: if the human cannot describe a pattern concretely, stop and return blocked: non-concrete-description. Do not substitute a generic warning.
• Unreviewed pre-existing file conflict: if the target file exists with unreviewed content, stop and return blocked: unreviewed-file-exists. Do not overwrite.
• Human declines review: return partial: file-written with the file path. The done predicate does not hold until the human confirms acceptance.
• Rollback: delete the written file only if (a) the file did not exist before this session and (b) the human has not confirmed the content. If the file existed before, restore it from the original content if possible. Rollback does not apply after human confirmation.

Output

• done: prohibited-habits-documented with the file path. The human confirmed the written artifact. - partial: file-written with the file path. The file was written but the human declined to review. - blocked: non-concrete-description: the human could not describe a prohibited pattern concretely. - blocked: unreviewed-file-exists: a pre-existing file at the target path was not reviewed in this session.