stack-orchestrator/CLAUDE.md

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code when working with the stack-orchestrator project.

Some rules to follow

NEVER speculate about the cause of something NEVER assume your hypotheses are true without evidence

ALWAYS clearly state when something is a hypothesis ALWAYS use evidence from the systems your interacting with to support your claims and hypotheses

Key Principles

Development Guidelines

• Single responsibility - Each component has one clear purpose
• Fail fast - Let errors propagate, don't hide failures
• DRY/KISS - Minimize duplication and complexity

Development Philosophy: Conversational Literate Programming

Approach

This project follows principles inspired by literate programming, where development happens through explanatory conversation rather than code-first implementation.

Core Principles

• Documentation-First: All changes begin with discussion of intent and reasoning
• Narrative-Driven: Complex systems are explained through conversational exploration
• Justification Required: Every coding task must have a corresponding TODO.md item explaining the "why"
• Iterative Understanding: Architecture and implementation evolve through dialogue

Working Method

1. Explore and Understand: Read existing code to understand current state
2. Discuss Architecture: Workshop complex design decisions through conversation
3. Document Intent: Update TODO.md with clear justification before coding
4. Explain Changes: Each modification includes reasoning and context
5. Maintain Narrative: Conversations serve as living documentation of design evolution

Implementation Guidelines

• Treat conversations as primary documentation
• Explain architectural decisions before implementing
• Use TODO.md as the "literate document" that justifies all work
• Maintain clear narrative threads across sessions
• Workshop complex ideas before coding

This approach treats the human-AI collaboration as a form of conversational literate programming where understanding emerges through dialogue before code implementation.

Insights and Observations

Design Principles

• When something times out that doesn't mean it needs a longer timeout it means something that was expected never happened, not that we need to wait longer for it.
• NEVER change a timeout because you believe something truncated, you don't understand timeouts, don't edit them unless told to explicitly by user.