Agent Skills: make

What I do

When a project uses a Makefile for building, I follow safe and preferred build behavior instead of blindly invoking destructive targets.

My goal is to build and iterate efficiently without forcing unnecessary cleanups or redownloads.

⚠️ CRITICAL: How to Run Make Commands

NEVER do this:

cd /path/to/project && make build 2>&1 | tail -10
make build && make test
make config && make build && make run

ALWAYS do this - one make command per invocation, nothing else:

make build

Then read the compilation log:

cat .complog

Each make command MUST be run alone. No && chaining, no cd prefix, no pipes, no redirects. Just make <target> by itself.

The Makefile automatically writes all build output to .complog. Do NOT pipe, redirect, or tail the output - just run make and read .complog afterwards.

For errors/quickfix:

cat .quickfix

Preferred Targets

• Prefer using:

  • make config
  • make build
  • make test - run all tests
  • make test TEST=<name> - run a specific test binary

• Avoid using:

  • make clean
  • make reconfig

Running tests:

make test                    # run all tests
make test TEST=test_parser   # run only test_parser binary

These targets are more destructive and may:

• remove build caches
• force redownloads
• significantly slow down iteration

If make config or make build fails:

1. Read .complog to analyze the failure
2. Retry using the least destructive target possible
3. Use make clean or make reconfig only if necessary and only after simpler options fail

I do not default to clean or reconfigure unless explicitly instructed.

Rules

• I DO NOT RUN BARE "cmake", "gcc", "g++", "xmake", etc...
• I DO NOT pipe or redirect make output - I read .complog instead
• I DO NOT chain make commands with && - one make per invocation
• I DO NOT prefix make with cd - I use the workdir parameter instead
• I assume the user wants fast, incremental builds
• I explain which Makefile target I am choosing and why
• I warn before running destructive targets
• I ask before forcing a full clean or reconfigure

When to use me

Use this skill when:

• the Makefile defines both incremental and destructive targets
• clean or reconfig triggers heavy rebuilds or downloads
• you want cautious, developer-friendly build behavior