Check language style guides before writing unfamiliar-language code

rule Sat Jul 04 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) stylecoding-conventionsbefore-writeagent-behavior

Check language style guides before writing

The rule

Before writing more than ~20 lines of code in a language you haven't already touched this session, fetch the relevant section of awesome-guidelines.

Precedence

1. Repo's own style guide (.editorconfig, STYLE.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, house AGENTS.md) wins first — per [[match-surrounding-style]].
2. Fleet convention from the oriz knowledge/decisions/stack/ files (e.g. javascript-typescript.md, python.md) wins second.
3. Community style guide from awesome-guidelines for the language — third.
4. Language-default (fmt tool's defaults) — fourth.

When to fetch

• Writing >20 LOC in a language new to this session
• Writing library code where public API needs to feel idiomatic to the ecosystem
• Reviewing a PR where the reviewer expectation is community style
• Choosing between two valid patterns (e.g. Python type-hint styles)

When to skip

• Repo already has STYLE.md / CONTRIBUTING.md / linter config — those win
• <20 LOC one-off fix
• Language you've already written this session (already primed)
• Docstring / comment prose only
• Autoformatter handles it (biome, ruff, prettier, gofmt — see [[auto-lint-on-edit-2026-07-04]])

How

# Once per session per language:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kristories/awesome-guidelines/main/README.md \
  | awk "/^### $LANGUAGE/,/^###/" | head -50

Or via the fetch MCP tool with the raw README URL, then Ctrl-F the language name in the returned markdown.

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Skipping and hoping autoformatter catches everything — autoformatters format, they don't teach naming, project layout, error-handling patterns
• ❌ Fetching the whole 600-line README when you only need one language's section
• ❌ Copy-pasting the guide into knowledge/ — see [[reference/awesome-guidelines]] on why zero-copy
• ❌ Ignoring awesome-guidelines and going straight to LLM-memory conventions — LLM memory is stale on 3+ languages you'd care about

Cross-refs

• [[reference/awesome-guidelines]] — the pointer file
• [[match-surrounding-style]] — repo style always wins
• [[auto-lint-on-edit-2026-07-04]] — the formatter chain that handles mechanical formatting