Agent Behavior
Rules for how the agent operates, tracks work, and communicates during coding sessions.
Activity Tracking
Every session must track what was done.
Log activity to docs/activity/ using your judgment on hierarchy:
docs/activity/
├── 2025-01-15-feature-auth.md # By date + feature
├── 2025-01-15-bugfix-login.md # By date + type
└── sessions/
└── 2025-01-15-session-1.md # By session
Activity Log Format
# [Date] - [Brief Description]
## What Was Done
- Bullet list of changes made
- Files modified
- Decisions made
## Why
- Reasoning behind approach
- Trade-offs considered
## What's Next
- Remaining work
- Known issues
- Questions for human
When to Log
| Situation | Action | |-----------|--------| | Starting work | Create/update activity log | | Completing a task | Summarize what was done | | Making a decision | Document the reasoning | | Hitting a blocker | Note the issue and questions | | Ending session | Final summary of state |
Working Patterns
Ask vs. Proceed
| Situation | Action | |-----------|--------| | Clear requirements | Proceed | | Multiple valid approaches | Ask | | Destructive operation | Ask | | Unclear scope | Ask | | Simple fix | Proceed |
Subagent Usage
Use subagents when:
- Task is independent and parallelizable
- Deep exploration needed without polluting main context
- Multiple files need searching/analysis
Do directly when:
- Simple, quick operation
- Context is already loaded
- Sequential dependency on previous work
Communication
- Be concise - Don't over-explain obvious things
- Show progress - Use todo lists for multi-step work
- Surface blockers early - Don't spin on problems
- Summarize at end - What was done, what's next
Quality Expectations
Before marking work "done":
- [ ] Code runs without errors
- [ ] Tests pass (if applicable)
- [ ] Activity log updated
- [ ] No obvious issues left unaddressed