Development Rules

Conversational Style

• No fluff or cheerful filler text
• Keep answers short and concise
• No emojis in commits, issues, PR comments, or code
• Technical prose only, be kind but direct (e.g., "Thanks @user" not "Thanks so much @user!")

Code Quality

• Read files in full before making wide-ranging changes, before editing files you have not already fully inspected, and when the user asks you to investigate or audit something. Do not rely only on search snippets for broad changes.
• Don't be too verbose with comments in the code. Only write comments when there is serious ambiguity
• No any types unless absolutely necessary
• Check node_modules for external API type definitions instead of guessing
• NEVER use inline imports - no await import("./foo.js"), no import("pkg").Type in type positions, no dynamic imports for types. Always use standard top-level imports.
• NEVER remove or downgrade code to fix type errors from outdated dependencies; upgrade the dependency instead
• Always ask before removing functionality or code that appears to be intentional
• Do not preserve backward compatibility unless the user explicitly asks for it
• Never hardcode key checks with, eg. matchesKey(keyData, "ctrl+x"). All keybindings must be configurable. Add default to matching object (DEFAULT_EDITOR_KEYBINDINGS or DEFAULT_APP_KEYBINDINGS)
• NEVER modify packages/ai/src/models.generated.ts directly. Update packages/ai/scripts/generate-models.ts instead.

Commands

• After code changes (not documentation changes): npm run check (get full output, no tail). Fix all errors, warnings, and infos before committing.
• Note: npm run check does not run tests.
• NEVER run: npm run dev, npm run build, npm test
• Only run specific tests if user instructs: npx tsx ../../node_modules/vitest/dist/cli.js --run test/specific.test.ts
• Run tests from the package root, not the repo root.
• If you create or modify a test file, you MUST run that test file and iterate until it passes.
• When writing tests, run them, identify issues in either the test or implementation, and iterate until fixed.
• For packages/coding-agent/test/suite/, use test/suite/harness.ts plus the faux provider. Do not use real provider APIs, real API keys, or paid tokens.
• Put issue-specific regressions under packages/coding-agent/test/suite/regressions/ and name them <issue-number>-<short-slug>.test.ts.

Daemon Protocol Changes

• Classify every daemon command, event, and response-shape change as backward-compatible, capability-gated, or incompatible.
• Add optional features behind a negotiated server capability. Clients must check the capability before sending the command or depending on the event.
• Bump DAEMON_PROTOCOL_VERSION for incompatible changes or when startup begins requiring behavior an older daemon cannot provide.
• Update DAEMON_SCHEMA_REVISION, the command/event compatibility maps, and both new-client/old-daemon and old-client/new-daemon tests for every wire change.
• Optional daemon metadata and UI features must degrade locally. They must not prevent the agent, session attachment, or interactive startup from working.
• Never make a new daemon command part of startup without a protocol or capability gate.

Dependencies

• A 7-day minimum release age applies to all dependency updates: .npmrc sets min-release-age=7 and .github/dependabot.yml uses a matching cooldown. Never bypass it for routine updates.
• Enforcement requires npm >= 11.10; older npm silently ignores the setting, so use a current npm when updating dependencies.
• For an urgent security patch younger than 7 days, override explicitly: npm install --min-release-age=0 <pkg>.

GitHub Workflow

When creating issues:

• Add pkg:* labels to indicate which package(s) the issue affects
  • Available labels: pkg:agent, pkg:ai, pkg:coding-agent, pkg:tui
• If an issue spans multiple packages, add all relevant labels

When posting issue/PR comments:

• Write the full comment to a temp file and use gh issue comment --body-file or gh pr comment --body-file
• Never pass multi-line markdown directly via --body in shell commands
• Preview the exact comment text before posting
• Post exactly one final comment unless the user explicitly asks for multiple comments
• If a comment is malformed, delete it immediately, then post one corrected comment
• Keep comments concise, technical, and in the user's tone

When closing issues via commit:

• Include fixes #<number> or closes #<number> in the commit message
• This automatically closes the issue when the commit is merged

PR Workflow

• Analyze PRs without pulling locally first
• If the user approves: create a feature branch, pull PR, rebase on main, apply adjustments, commit, merge into main, push, close PR, and leave a comment in the user's tone
• We work in feature branches until everything is according to the user's requirements. Never merge PRs by yourself.

Testing Prime Agent Interactive Mode with tmux

To test Prime Agent's TUI in a controlled terminal environment:

# Create tmux session with specific dimensions
tmux new-session -d -s prime-agent-test -x 80 -y 24

# Start Prime Agent from source
tmux send-keys -t prime-agent-test "cd /Users/kevin/pi/prime-agent && ./prime-agent.sh" Enter

# Wait for startup, then capture output
sleep 3 && tmux capture-pane -t prime-agent-test -p

# Send input
tmux send-keys -t prime-agent-test "your prompt here" Enter

# Send special keys
tmux send-keys -t prime-agent-test Escape
tmux send-keys -t prime-agent-test C-o  # ctrl+o

# Cleanup
tmux kill-session -t prime-agent-test

You, yourself, are often running into a tmux session, so be careful when killing tmux sessions. Lots of other processes can be running on different tmux sessions/

Changelog

Location: packages/*/CHANGELOG.md (each package has its own)

Format

A flat list of plain bullets under ## [Unreleased]. No ### Added / ### Changed / ### Fixed / ### Removed subsections — just one bullet per change, written as a short sentence starting with a past-tense verb (Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed). Keep each bullet to one line; describe the user-visible change, not the implementation.

Example of a well-formed [Unreleased] section:

## [Unreleased]

- Added `/effort` to set the reasoning level, with autocomplete for the levels the current model supports.
- Changed `prime-agent` to open a new chat by default instead of resuming the previous session.
- Fixed onboarding showing no models after entering a provider key.
- Removed the interactive `!` / `!!` bash shortcuts; use IPython instead.

Rules

• Read the full [Unreleased] section first so you don't duplicate an existing bullet
• New entries ALWAYS go under ## [Unreleased]
• NEVER modify already-released version sections (e.g., ## [0.2.1]) — each is immutable once released

Attribution

• Internal changes (from issues): Fixed foo bar ([#123](https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent/issues/123))
• External contributions: Added feature X ([#456](https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent/pull/456) by [@username](https://github.com/username))

Adding a New LLM Provider (packages/ai)

Adding a new provider requires changes across multiple files:

1. Core Types (packages/ai/src/types.ts)

• Add API identifier to Api type union (e.g., "bedrock-converse-stream")
• Create options interface extending StreamOptions
• Add mapping to ApiOptionsMap
• Add provider name to KnownProvider type union

2. Provider Implementation (packages/ai/src/providers/)

Create provider file exporting:

• stream<Provider>() function returning AssistantMessageEventStream
• streamSimple<Provider>() for SimpleStreamOptions mapping
• Provider-specific options interface
• Message/tool conversion functions
• Response parsing emitting standardized events (text, tool_call, thinking, usage, stop)

3. Provider Exports and Lazy Registration

• Add a package subpath export in packages/ai/package.json pointing at ./dist/providers/<provider>.js
• Add export type re-exports in packages/ai/src/index.ts for provider option types that should remain available from the root entry
• Register the provider in packages/ai/src/providers/register-builtins.ts via lazy loader wrappers, do not statically import provider implementation modules there
• Add credential detection in packages/ai/src/env-api-keys.ts

4. Model Generation (packages/ai/scripts/generate-models.ts)

• Add logic to fetch/parse models from provider source
• Map to standardized Model interface

5. Tests (packages/ai/test/)

• Always add the provider to stream.test.ts with at least one representative model, even if it reuses an existing API implementation such as openai-completions.
• Add the provider to the broader provider matrix where applicable: tokens.test.ts, abort.test.ts, empty.test.ts, context-overflow.test.ts, image-limits.test.ts, unicode-surrogate.test.ts, tool-call-without-result.test.ts, image-tool-result.test.ts, total-tokens.test.ts, cross-provider-handoff.test.ts.
• For cross-provider-handoff.test.ts, add at least one provider/model pair. If the provider exposes multiple model families (for example GPT and Claude), add at least one pair per family.
• For non-standard auth, create utility (e.g., bedrock-utils.ts) with credential detection.

6. Coding Agent (packages/coding-agent/)

• src/core/model-resolver.ts: Add default model ID to defaultModelPerProvider
• src/core/provider-display-names.ts: Add API-key login display name so /login and related UI show the provider for built-in API-key auth.
• src/cli/args.ts: Add env var documentation
• README.md: Add provider setup instructions
• docs/providers.md: Add setup instructions, env var, and auth.json key

7. Documentation

• packages/ai/README.md: Add to providers table, document options/auth, add env vars
• packages/ai/CHANGELOG.md: Add entry under ## [Unreleased]

Releasing

Lockstep versioning: All packages always share the same version number. Every release updates all packages together.

Version semantics (no major releases):

• patch: Bug fixes and new features
• minor: API breaking changes

Steps

1. Update CHANGELOGs: Ensure all changes since last release are documented in the [Unreleased] section of each affected package's CHANGELOG.md
2. Run release script:

   npm run release:patch    # Fixes and additions
   npm run release:minor    # API breaking changes

The script handles: version bump, CHANGELOG finalization, commit, tag, publish, and adding new [Unreleased] sections.

CRITICAL Git Rules for Parallel Agents CRITICAL

Multiple agents may work on different files in the same worktree simultaneously. You MUST follow these rules:

Committing

• ONLY commit files YOU changed in THIS session
• ALWAYS include fixes #<number> or closes #<number> in the commit message when there is a related issue or PR
• NEVER use git add -A or git add . - these sweep up changes from other agents
• ALWAYS use git add <specific-file-paths> listing only files you modified
• Before committing, run git status and verify you are only staging YOUR files
• Track which files you created/modified/deleted during the session
• It is always fine to include packages/ai/src/models.generated.ts in a commit alongside the actual files you want to commit

Forbidden Git Operations

These commands can destroy other agents' work:

• git reset --hard - destroys uncommitted changes
• git checkout . - destroys uncommitted changes
• git clean -fd - deletes untracked files
• git stash - stashes ALL changes including other agents' work
• git add -A / git add . - stages other agents' uncommitted work
• git commit --no-verify - bypasses required checks and is never allowed

Safe Workflow

# 1. Check status first
git status

# 2. Add ONLY your specific files
git add packages/ai/src/providers/transform-messages.ts
git add packages/ai/CHANGELOG.md

# 3. Commit
git commit -m "fix(ai): description"

# 4. Push (pull --rebase if needed, but NEVER reset/checkout)
git pull --rebase && git push

If Rebase Conflicts Occur

• Resolve conflicts in YOUR files only
• If conflict is in a file you didn't modify, abort and ask the user
• NEVER force push

User override

If the user instructions conflict with rules set out here, ask for confirmation that they want to override the rules. Only then execute their instructions.