ways-of-working · git:20260501.40a82e3 · 2026-05-01 · sha256 f5a00405ee93a484
ways-of-working git:20260501.40a82e3A
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--- name: ways-of-working description: >- Codifies devantler-tech engineering practices: agent-first development workflow, TDD, CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Flow, code quality gates, and Kubernetes workflows with ksail. Use when filing issues, planning work, setting up projects, configuring CI/CD, writing tests, debugging, or making architectural decisions. license: Apache-2.0 --- # Ways of Working ## Development Workflow Development is agent-first — every change starts as a structured issue and flows through issue → plan → implement → test → review: 1. **Create an issue** using the [devantler-tech/.github issue templates](https://github.com/devantler-tech/.github/tree/main/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE): - **Feature** — user story with acceptance criteria. - **Bug** — expected vs actual behavior with reproduction steps. - **Chore** — user story with acceptance criteria for general tasks. - **Kata** — Improvement Kata for continuous improvement (problem → definition of awesome → target condition → actions). 2. **Plan** — create a structured implementation plan from the issue before writing code. 3. **Implement** — execute the plan following the practices in this skill (TDD, quality gates, GitHub Flow, CI/CD). 4. **Manual test** — validate behavior hands-on before merging. Focus on UX: output must be well-presented and every piece of feedback (errors, warnings, prompts) must be actionable. 5. **Code review** (optional) — CI's strict linting, scanning, and quality gates are the primary feedback loop, so manual review is not always required. ## Testing Follow the [test-driven-development](https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/main/skills/test-driven-development) skill rigorously — write the test first, watch it fail, write minimal code to pass. ### Application / Library Repositories | Type | Tooling | When to run | |------|---------|-------------| | **Unit tests** | SDK test frameworks (e.g. `go test`, `xunit`, `jest`) | CI on every PR | | **Integration tests** | SDK test frameworks | CI on every PR | | **E2E / system tests** | GitHub Actions workflows that exercise the app/binary/service as an end user would | CI on every PR; move to `merge_group` if the suite becomes too heavy | | **Benchmark tests** | SDK benchmark frameworks (e.g. `BenchmarkDotNet`, `go test -bench`) | CI on every PR | ### Platform / Kubernetes Repositories For platform engineering work, [ksail](https://github.com/devantler-tech/ksail) provides the build → run → publish loop and [Testkube](https://testkube.io/) runs the actual test suites inside the cluster: | Type | App-repo equivalent | Tooling | What it does | |------|---------------------|---------|--------------| | **Linting / scanning** | Unit tests | Standard linters & scanners (e.g. kubeconform, kube-linter, Trivy) | Validate manifests statically — no cluster needed | | **Integration tests** | Integration tests | Ephemeral local cluster (`ksail cluster create`) + Testkube | Spin up a Docker cluster, deploy workloads, and run Testkube test suites against them | | **E2E / system tests** | E2E / system tests | Ephemeral or real cluster + Testkube | Deploy to a full environment (local or remote) and run end-to-end Testkube test suites | Platform lifecycle commands: | Command | Purpose | |---------|---------| | `ksail cluster init` | Scaffold a new cluster configuration | | `ksail cluster create` | Spin up the cluster locally (Docker) or on real infrastructure and verify workloads reconcile | | `ksail workload push` | Push Kubernetes manifests as OCI artifacts to a container registry | ## Code Quality Gates (CI) Every pull request **must** pass: - **Strict linting** — language-specific linters with zero-tolerance for warnings. - **Strict security scanning** — e.g. CodeQL, Trivy, zizmor. - **Strict code quality scanning** — e.g. SonarQube, MegaLinter. - **No code coverage regression** — coverage must not decrease compared to the base branch. - **No benchmark regression** — benchmark results must not regress compared to the base branch. ## Problem Solving - **Fix at the root cause** — never patch symptoms. Trace every bug or failure to its origin and fix it there. - **Workarounds are always temporary** — if a workaround is unavoidable, mark it clearly (e.g. `// WORKAROUND:` comment with a linked issue) and schedule its removal. - **Upstream first** — when a fix belongs in a dependency or upstream project, contribute it there. Only carry a local patch until the upstream change is released. ## Libraries Prefer popular, well-maintained third-party libraries over writing custom implementations. Only roll your own when no suitable library exists or when the dependency would be disproportionately heavy. ## Refactoring & Design Follow <https://refactoring.guru> guidelines for refactoring techniques and design patterns. ## Branching & Flow Use **GitHub Flow**: 1. Create a feature branch from `main`. 2. Open a pull request. 3. Pass all CI checks. 4. Merge via merge queue (`merge_group`) when the repository is configured for it; otherwise merge the pull request normally. ## CI/CD Pipeline Each repository has two core workflow files — `ci.yaml` and `cd.yaml` — plus a thin `release.yaml` that calls a reusable workflow (see [Releases](#releases)). Reusable logic is extracted into local GitHub Actions under `.github/actions/`: - **Composite actions** — for simple, self-contained steps. - **TypeScript actions** — for anything complex, because they are locally testable and avoid hard-to-read bash embedded in YAML. ### Application / Library Repositories | Event | What runs | |-------|-----------| | `pull_request` | All tests (unit, integration, E2E, benchmarks), linting, security & quality scanning, coverage & benchmark regression checks. Move E2E to `merge_group` only if the suite becomes too heavy. | | `merge_group` | CD to **dev** environment. | | `push` to `main` | **Publish** artifacts (packages, container images, etc.). | | Semver tag (`vX.X.X`) | CD to **prod** environment. | ### Platform / Kubernetes Repositories | Event | What runs | |-------|-----------| | `pull_request` | Linting & scanning (kubeconform, kube-linter, Trivy, etc.) plus integration tests on an ephemeral local cluster (`ksail cluster create` + Testkube). Move integration tests to `merge_group` if the suite becomes too heavy. | | `merge_group` | CD to **dev** — deploy to staging infrastructure (e.g. Hetzner). | | Semver tag (`vX.X.X`) | CD to **prod** — `ksail cluster update`, `ksail workload push`, `ksail workload reconcile`. | ### Releases Releases are automated via the [`devantler-tech/reusable-workflows/.github/workflows/create-release.yaml`](https://github.com/devantler-tech/reusable-workflows/blob/main/.github/workflows/create-release.yaml) reusable workflow. It runs [semantic-release](https://semantic-release.gitbook.io/) on `push` to `main`, calculates the next semver from [conventional commit](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) history, and creates the tag + GitHub release — which in turn triggers the CD pipeline above. For application publishing, always use upstream releasers — e.g. [GoReleaser](https://goreleaser.com/) for Go or [dotnet-releaser](https://github.com/xoofx/dotnet-releaser) for .NET — rather than hand-rolling publish scripts. ## Data-Driven Improvement - Use **benchmarking data** to guide performance improvements — don't optimise without numbers. - Use **code coverage data** to guide where to add tests — target uncovered paths, not a vanity percentage. ## Reference Implementations - [devantler-tech/ksail](https://github.com/devantler-tech/ksail) — Go CLI built with TDD, full CI/CD pipeline, benchmarks, and E2E system tests in GitHub Actions. - [devantler-tech/platform](https://github.com/devantler-tech/platform) — Kubernetes platform using ksail for init → create → push OCI workflow, with progressive CI (Docker → Hetzner staging → Hetzner prod).