infermatrixlab/infermatrixcopilot/docstring-conventions

Diagnose

A module/class/function/method has no docstring, or one that restates the signature instead of explaining behavior + I/O. Or a PR adds a public function with no docstring. The normative reference is doc/contributing/DOCSTRING_STYLE.md.

Fix

Write to the house voice (grounded in PEP 257 form + Google's "what to document"), NOT heavy Args:/Returns: blocks:

• Module: the one thing the file owns + what it exports. For a re-export

__init__.py, say what the package groups and that the surface is re-exported. The module docstring is the file's first statement, above from __future__.

• Class: role in one line; note the key attribute or invariant it upholds.

Dataclass field meaning goes in the class docstring or an inline # comment.

• Function/method: summary line, then inputs → output and the non-obvious

why, in prose. Name the parameters that carry meaning; say what the return represents. Keep the contract framing the specs use — call out when a function is a fail-closed gate, publishes state for a later step (B2), degrades to a typed BLOCKED result, or records a capability_gap.

• Trivial accessor / property / tiny closure: a one-line docstring is

correct and PEP-257-preferred — do not scaffold it.

Scale a large pass with parallel agents over disjoint file sets, each given the style doc and the AST list of what's missing, told to add docstrings ONLY.

Verification

• AST scan for coverage: parse every file, assert ast.get_docstring is

non-empty for the module and every ClassDef/FunctionDef/AsyncFunctionDef.

• python -m py_compile each edited file; full test suite green.
• The diff must be additive — the only acceptable deletions are pass

placeholders in empty classes that a docstring now replaces. Any other removed line means code was changed.

• Re-run the repo-neutrality guard: a docstring must not add a repo-specific

literal (naming a sibling repo, a /rebase/ path). Reword to a generic phrase ("the parent rebase-agent") instead of loosening the ceiling.

Anti-patterns

• Docstrings that narrate the code line-by-line instead of the intent/contract.
• Inventing specifics (thresholds, line numbers, behavior) the code doesn't

support — describe only what the body actually does.

• Changing signatures/logic or rewriting a correct existing docstring during a

docstring pass — it is purely additive.

• Duplicating the per-file SPEC — the docstring is the local in-code view; the

spec is the normative contract.