aliatx2017/reasonix-hermes/anti-patterns

Anti-Patterns — What NOT to Do

When to Load

Before any non-trivial implementation work. These are behavioral rules that prevent common agent mistakes.

Anti-Patterns

AP1: Delegate Research-Heavy Tasks to Subagents

Wrong: Searching 20 files sequentially in the parent agent, burning context on intermediate results. Right: Use task or explore for wide-net research. Only the distilled answer returns to your context.

AP2: Read-File Instead of Grep/Glob/CodeGraph

Wrong: read_file on large files hunting for a symbol. Right: grep for patterns, glob for file discovery, mcp__codegraph__search for symbol-level search. Read files only when you know the exact location.

AP3: Premature Abstraction

Wrong: Extracting a helper function before the pattern repeats 3+ times. Right: Copy-paste is OK for the first two occurrences. Extract on the third.

AP4: Big-Bang Edits

Wrong: Making 10 changes across 8 files, then building. Right: One atomic change → build → test. Iterate. multi_edit for multiple edits to a single file.

AP5: Unverified Claims

Wrong: "Fixed." "Done." "Works." without evidence. Right: Show go build, go test, go vet output. Use complete_step with verification evidence. Never say "fixed" — only the user declares it.

AP6: Write Without Read

Wrong: Editing a file you haven't read this turn. Right: Re-read the target area before editing. Use content_hash on edit_file.

AP7: Shell Instead of File Tools

Wrong: bash("echo 'content' > file.go") or bash("sed -i ...") Right: Use write_file, edit_file, multi_edit, delete_range — they're safer, undoable, and tracked.

AP8: Token Waste on Verbose Tool Output

Wrong: Printing full 10K-line build output to context. Right: Pipe through tail -20 or grep for relevant lines. The compressor (internal/compress/) handles dedup.

AP9: Mid-Session Prompt Mutation

Wrong: Editing the system prompt or tool descriptions between turns. Right: Ride the turn tail (pendingMemory in controller.go). Constitution rule: never mutate mid-session.

AP10: Forgetting Upstream Sync

Wrong: Ending a session without git fetch upstream. Right: Constitution requirement — always sync upstream before session end. Merge, rebuild, re-vet.

Tool Defaults to Prefer

Related

• Project skill: ready-means-tested — evidence gate
• Project skill: pre-action-gate — pre-write verification
• Project skill: cache-first-architecture — don't break the prefix
• Constitution: .reasonix/constitution.json — all 7 rules