A discipline of agentic development
Repository hygiene
A codebase is a living thing. Like a garden, it stays healthy through small, regular care. And agents thrive in a well-kept repository just as much as people do.
Agents read a repository the way a new colleague would: they take in its structure, its conventions and its documentation, and they copy what they find. A tidy codebase leads to tidy contributions; a neglected one multiplies its own problems.
I help teams set simple, hygienic rules for maintaining their repositories, and make those rules explicit, so that people and agents keep the codebase in good shape without anyone having to police it.
Three ideas
Make the implicit explicit
Write down how the team works, its structure, conventions and decisions, in a place where both people and agents will read it.
Prune regularly
Dead code, outdated dependencies and stale documentation quietly slow everyone down. A little pruning, often, keeps the codebase light.
Clear ownership
Every part of a codebase should have someone who cares for it. Ownership turns maintenance from a chore into craftsmanship.
In practice
- Context and rules files that tell agents how the team works
- Consistent structure, formatting and naming that make code predictable
- Regular moments for housekeeping and cleaning up
- Documentation that lives close to the code and stays up to date
Questions to start with
- Would an agent understand your conventions from the repository alone?
- When did your team last remove something instead of adding it?
- Who feels responsible for which parts of the codebase?