Best Practices

---
name: best-practices
description: Activate when starting new work to check for established patterns. Activate when ensuring consistency with team standards or when promoting successful memory patterns. Searches and applies best practices before implementation.
---

# Best Practices Skill

Search and apply established best practices before implementation.

## When to Use

- Starting new implementation work
- Checking for established patterns
- Promoting successful memory patterns
- Ensuring consistency with team standards

## Best Practices Location

Best practices are stored in `best-practices/<category>/`:
- `best-practices/architecture/`
- `best-practices/development/`
- `best-practices/git/`
- `best-practices/operations/`
- `best-practices/quality/`
- `best-practices/security/`
- `best-practices/collaboration/`

## Search Before Implementation

**MANDATORY**: Check best-practices AND memory before starting work:

1. **Identify** the domain/category of work
2. **Search best-practices** directory:
   ```bash
   find best-practices/<category>/ -name "*.md"
   ```
3. **Search memory** for related patterns:
   ```text
   memory search: "<relevant keywords>"
   ```

   (CLI fallback: `node ./.claude/skills/memory/cli.js search "<relevant keywords>"` for project installs,
   or `node ~/.claude/skills/memory/cli.js search "<relevant keywords>"` for user installs.)
4. **Apply** established patterns to implementation
5. **Note** deviations with justification

## Best Practice Format

```markdown
# [Practice Name]

## When to Use
[Situations where this practice applies]

## Pattern
[The recommended approach]

## Example
[Concrete implementation example]

## Rationale
[Why this approach is preferred]

## Anti-patterns
[What to avoid]
```

## Promotion from Memory

When a memory pattern proves successful:
1. **Threshold**: Used 3+ times successfully
2. **Validation**: Pattern is generalizable
3. **Documentation**: Full best-practice format
4. **Location**: Move to appropriate category
5. **References**: Update memory to link to best-practice

## Integration with AgentTasks

When creating AgentTasks, reference applicable best practices:
```yaml
context:
  best_practices:
    - category: security
      practice: input-validation
    - category: git
      practice: commit-messages
```

## Categories

| Category | Focus |
|----------|-------|
| architecture | System design patterns |
| collaboration | Team workflow patterns |
| development | Coding standards |
| git | Version control practices |
| operations | Deployment/monitoring |
| quality | Testing/review practices |
| security | Security patterns |