Argos

Monorepo: apps/backend (Express + GraphQL + Objection/Knex), apps/frontend (React + Vite + Apollo), shared code in packages/. Local setup (Docker, DB seeding, dev server) is documented in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Before finishing any change

Run pnpm run static-checks. It is the same turbo task CI runs (check-types, check-format, lint, knip), so it is the only thing that tells you CI will pass. Fix everything it reports, including unused code found by knip.

While iterating, use the fast local checks on what you touched: oxfmt <target>, tsrs --noEmit, oxlint <target>.

Type checking is tsrs, a Rust port of the TypeScript compiler. typescript is pinned to the exact TypeScript build tsrs ports (tsrs --version prints it), so the editor and every tool that peers on typescript see the compiler CI checks with: bump the two together.

Formatting is oxfmt, configured once in .oxfmtrc.json at the repository root — there is no per-workspace config and no per-workspace check-format script. It formats the whole monorepo in a couple of seconds, so pnpm run check-format at the root is the only command you need. Keep it that way: per-workspace scripts leave root-level sources like tests/ and vitest/ unchecked, because no workspace owns them. It also owns import sorting and Tailwind class sorting, which used to be Prettier plugins.

Linting is oxlint, configured once in .oxlintrc.json at the repository root — there is no per-workspace config and no per-workspace lint script. It lints the whole monorepo in well under a second, so pnpm run lint at the root is the only command you need. The rule set is oxlint's correctness category across the typescript, unicorn, oxc, react and vitest plugins, plus the deviations listed in rules / overrides. Two project-specific guards live there:

• no-restricted-imports keeps sonner out of the frontend (import from @/ui/Toaster instead).
• argos/no-module-relative-paths — a local plugin in tools/oxlint-plugin-argos.js, wired up through jsPlugins — rejects import.meta.dirname / __dirname in the bundled backend. Oxlint has no no-restricted-syntax equivalent, so the rule is hand-written.

Suppress with // oxlint-disable-next-line <rule>. Oxlint still honours eslint-disable comments, but do not write new ones.

Commits

Conventional Commits, with one rule that decides the type: feat and fix are for what a user would notice — a capability they gain, a bug they hit. Judge it from their side of the screen, not from how much code moved or how hard it was to find. Everything else is chore, however substantial: refactors, tests, tooling, docs, dependency bumps, and internal fixes no user could ever observe. Do not use style — the formatter owns formatting, so the type has nothing left to describe.

Comments

A comment has to say something the code cannot. A constraint coming from elsewhere in the system, a race, a workaround, a decision whose better-looking alternative is wrong — those earn their lines, and the codebase is full of them on purpose. Everything else is noise a reader wades through and a maintainer has to keep true.

So do not write:

• a restatement of the line below it — // Review the next build over a button that reads "Review next build";
• a defence of what is not in the code. An approach considered and dropped belongs in the pull request, where it is read once, not in the file, where it is read forever;
• an explanation of a name that is already clear, or a banner announcing a section the structure already shows.

Comment the part that is actually surprising, not the whole block around it. When the explanation keeps growing, the code usually wants a named function instead.

Learning from review

Every human correction — a requested change on a pull request, a comment pinned to an Argos screenshot, a "no, do it this way" in the session — means these instructions were missing something. Fix the instance, then fix the cause, so the next agent does not make the same mistake.

• Write down the rule that would have prevented it, not the instance: the convention behind "rename this", not the rename. Keep it as narrow as the review; a rule broader than what the reviewer objected to forbids things nobody asked to forbid. When the intent is unclear, ask in the thread first.
• Put it where it gets enforced, strongest first. A lint rule (.oxlintrc.json, or tools/oxlint-plugin-argos.js for a custom one), a type or a test fails CI on the next attempt; a sentence can be skimmed past. Otherwise add it to the matching section of this file, or to the skill in .agents/skills/ when only that workflow needs it.
• Edit, don't append. Fold the lesson into the section it belongs to, and replace a rule the review contradicts instead of keeping both. Record the rule and why it holds, not the story: the pull request and who asked are in git history.
• Ship it in the same pull request as the fix, so the reviewer checks the rule as well as the code.

Skip what will not recur: a typo, a one-off judgment call, a question answered without a change.

TypeScript

• Never use ! (non-null assertion). Use invariant for required values.
• Program by assertion, not by defense: when a value is expected to be present (a context provided by an ancestor, a required param, an invariant of the call site), assert it with invariant (or a hook built on it, e.g. useNonNullable / useProjectPermission) and use it directly. Do not paper over the expectation with optional chaining or ?? <fallback> — that silently degrades instead of surfacing a broken assumption. Reserve ?. / ?? for values that are genuinely optional.
• Avoid as type assertions; prefer proper typing, type guards, or satisfies. as const is fine.

Database

Schema lives in apps/backend/db/, managed with Knex migrations + Objection models. To add or change a column:

1. pnpm run --filter @argos/backend db:migrate:make <short-description>, then write async up / down in the generated file. Use knex.raw(...) for raw constraint changes, with export const config = { transaction: false } when needed.
2. pnpm run --filter @argos/backend db:dump — migrates and regenerates the committed db/structure.sql. Commit the migration and structure.sql.
3. Update the Objection model in src/database/models/: add the column to jsonSchema.properties (nullable → { type: ["string", "null"] }, dates are ISO strings) and the typed class field. createdAt/updatedAt come from the base Model.
4. Reset the test DB before running the Playwright tests: NODE_ENV=test pnpm run --filter @argos/backend db:reset. pnpm test:integration needs nothing — it rebuilds its own databases whenever structure.sql changes.

Idempotent inserts: never gate an insert on a prior existence check — two concurrent requests can both pass it and race on the primary key. Insert atomically with onConflict([...]).ignore() (or .merge(...)), and read the .returning(...) rows when you need to know whether the row was actually created (empty array = conflict ignored, e.g. don't send the notification).

GraphQL

• The schema is the source of truth. After editing any typeDefs in apps/backend/src/graphql/definitions/, run pnpm run codegen from the repo root — it writes the backend resolver types (src/graphql/__generated__/, schema.gql) and the frontend types (apps/frontend/src/gql/). Import generated enums/types instead of using any, and add mappers in /codegen.ts when needed.
• Keep resolvers thin, put business logic in services, and use DataLoader to avoid N+1 queries.
• Expose per-object permissions as an enum field (permissions: [XxxPermission!]!) computed from ctx.auth?.user. Put the logic in a pure helper (see src/comment/permissions.ts) so the same function backs both the permissions resolver and the guard inside the mutation. Always enforce the check in the mutation — never trust the client.

Frontend

Mutations: only use useMutation when you actually render from its result tuple (loading / data / error). It re-renders the component while the request is in flight even if you never read that state. Otherwise call useApolloClient().mutate({ mutation, variables, ... }) directly.

Dialogs: build them with Modal + Dialog from @/ui. Modal owns a pending state (ModalActionContext) that blocks dismissal while an action is in flight — never track that with a local loading boolean.

• Form dialogs: wrap the body in <Form> with a <FormSubmit>. Form flags the modal pending during submit and routes server errors through handleFormError. Close on success with useOverlayTriggerState().close().
• Action dialogs (confirm/delete/revoke): drive the mutation with useModalAction() to get the same pending-blocks-dismiss behavior. Use role="alertdialog", variant="destructive" for destructive actions, and toast.success(...) on completion.

If possible, put some screenshots or videos using /argos-upload skill.

Notifications

Two-stage async pipeline in apps/backend/src/notification/: sendNotification({ type, data, recipients }) → notificationWorkflowJob (applies opt-outs) → notificationMessageJob (renders and sends the email).

To add a type, model it on an existing handler (e.g. handlers/review_submitted.tsx) and register it in handlers/index.ts — the NotificationWorkflowType union and typed sendNotification props derive from that array, and no migration is needed (data is a JSON column). recipients is an array of user ids you compute; the system never discovers them.

Rich-text comments (TipTap)

The TipTap extension list is duplicated and must stay in sync between apps/backend/src/comment/schema.ts (drives validateCommentJson and email HTML rendering) and apps/frontend/src/ui/Editor/. A node the client produces but the backend doesn't register is rejected with Invalid comment body.

Never trust the client for anything derived from content (e.g. mentioned users) — re-parse the stored JSON server-side and check permissions (see src/comment/mentions.ts). A mention node persists only the account id, never the label; labels are resolved at render time on both sides.

What to test

Coverage is not the goal. Every test is code someone has to keep working, so it has to earn its place by protecting something the project actually depends on.

• Test what matters to the whole project, not edge cases. Billing, permissions and auth, the build lifecycle, review and comment flows, notifications — the paths where a regression reaches users or corrupts data. A test that pins one component's internal state buys little and costs maintenance forever.
• The more end-to-end, the better. A Playwright spec exercises the real server, the real database and the real client together, which is where bugs actually live; the same assertion one layer down proves much less. When a behavior can be reached from the UI, test it there and skip the unit test.
• Avoid mocking. A mock asserts what you assumed the collaborator does, so the test passes while production breaks. If a behavior can only be reached by mocking, move the test further out — or accept that it does not need one.
• Low-level utilities are the exception worth being exhaustive about. Pure helpers with many input shapes — parsers, validators, comparators, formatters — are cheap to cover case by case, and that is exactly where a table-driven *.test.ts pays off.
• Not every fix needs a test. A flake, a one-off rendering detail or an ordering tweak is usually fixed and left at that. Add a guard only when the behavior is worth defending on its own.

Testing (Vitest)

• Tests live next to the code. *.e2e.test.ts requires Redis/Postgres, *.test.ts otherwise.
• pnpm test:unit (no infra) / pnpm test:integration (Postgres + Redis).
• Use apps/backend/src/database/testing/factory.ts for fixtures, and test.extend (prefer one per file, creating models inside fixtures).
• Keep fixtures small, reusable, independent, and split by concern so tests run in parallel. Avoid large shared setups.
• Test API endpoints with createTestHandlerApp + supertest.
• test:integration runs in parallel, and every test truncates the whole database, so each worker owns a test_<workerId> database, a Redis database and a queue prefix — set up by vitest/vitest.e2e.global-setup.mts (see apps/backend/src/database/testing/workers.ts). Nothing to create by hand: worker databases are built from db/structure.sql and rebuilt whenever it changes. The test database is left alone, it belongs to Playwright.

• If db:reset reports database "test" is being accessed by other users:

  psql -h 127.0.0.1 -U postgres -d postgres -c "SELECT pg_terminate_backend(pid) FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'test' AND pid <> pg_backend_pid();"

E2E / visual tests (Playwright + Argos)

Specs live in tests/*.spec.ts and run against the built app.

• Run with NODE_ENV=test pnpm test:e2e. This is required: the test process (which seeds the DB) and the web server must both resolve to the test Postgres DB. Without it the seeds write to development while the server reads test, and pages render "Page not found".
  • Single test: NODE_ENV=test pnpm test:e2e --project=chromium -g "<title>".
• Build first (pnpm build), and rebuild the frontend after changing it — the server serves apps/frontend/dist. Specs import seeds from apps/backend/src directly, so seed changes need no backend rebuild. Shared packages/* must be built too or module resolution fails.
• The setup project truncates the DB; each test seeds its own data via the loggedTest fixtures (real session cookie), so keep seeded data isolated.
• Take screenshots with the screenshot() helper in tests/util.ts. Content marked data-visual-test="transparent" (e.g. <Time>) is neutralized automatically; use the helper's replacements for other unstable text.
• Seeds live in apps/backend/src/database/seeds.ts. Add a focused scenario function rather than bending createBuildScenario, which many baselines depend on. Use a unique keyPrefix (e.g. the project id) for File keys, and reuse existing image keys (dummy-*, diff-*) so images load from files.argos-ci.com/test/<s3Id>.
• A guard test — when the behavior warrants one, see What to test — should fail without the fix. Verify by temporarily reverting the fix, rebuilding, and re-running before trusting it.

Seeding gotchas

• createBuildScenario: build 6 = changes detected (2 failures, 6 changed, 8 added, 2 removed, 2 unchanged), build 7 = accepted, build 8 = rejected. All on branch main, bucket name default.
• An active Stripe subscription needs provider: "stripe" plus stripeSubscriptionId and subscriberId (a users.id, not an account id) — the check_stripe_fields constraint.
• "Previous approvals" (branchApprovedDiffs) needs an earlier build on the same bucket name + branch with conclusion changes-detected, an approved non-dismissed BuildReview for the viewer, matching ScreenshotDiffReview rows, and matching fingerprint on both builds' diffs (seed diffs have no fileIds, so fingerprints are the only link).
• IconButtons don't expose accessible names from tooltips — locate them via the lucide icon class, e.g. button:has(.lucide-thumbs-up).

Verifying a change in the running app

1. docker compose up -d (Postgres on 5432, Redis on 6380).
2. NODE_ENV=test pnpm run --filter @argos/backend db:migrate:latest.
3. pnpm build (or pnpm turbo run build --filter=@argos/frontend for a frontend-only change).
4. NODE_ENV=test pnpm run --filter @argos/backend start-web — serves the built frontend on http://localhost:3000. Always start backend processes through bin/start.sh (what start-web / start-worker use); it loads Sentry instrumentation before the modules it patches.

For interactive development, pnpm run dev runs the watchers instead.