Make

No scripts/. The language being built still loads its own skill. Process skills that may load with this one: load-with list.

Iron law

Every recipe is a real dependency graph. Tabs. Quoted variables.

Tooling / verify

make -n <target>     # print, do not run
make <target>        # then run the target you changed

Confirm only intended files changed.

Idioms a linter misses

• .PHONY for non-file targets.
• Automatic vars ($@, $<, $^) instead of repeating names.
• One source of truth for flags (CFLAGS, GOFLAGS).
• Recipe lines fail closed. Do not hide errors with a leading - unless you say why.
• The default target is what a stranger should run.

Errors

• A failed recipe stops the build. .DELETE_ON_ERROR if the project already uses it.

Testing

• Run the changed target. Dry-run first when the target is destructive.

PR review

• Tabs vs spaces in recipes.
• rm -rf is quoted and ${DIR:?}-style guarded.
• Recursive make is not introduced as a new architecture.

Security

• No curl | sh in a recipe.
• No unquoted destructive globs.

Always

• .PHONY. Quoted paths. make -n on destructive targets.

Ask first

• Generating files outside the repo.
• A new recursive make of another tree.

Never

• Unquoted rm -rf $(DIR).
• Treating Make as a list of shell scripts with no graph.

Red flags

• "Make is just a script list"
• "The dash prefix makes it more reliable"