gh-yaleh-meta-cc-claude/skills/error-recovery/reference/prevention-guidelines.md

Error Prevention Guidelines

Version: 1.0 Source: Bootstrap-003 Error Recovery Methodology Last Updated: 2025-10-18

Proactive strategies to prevent common errors before they occur.

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Overview

Prevention is better than recovery. This document provides actionable guidelines to prevent the most common error categories.

Automation Impact: 3 automated tools prevent 23.7% of all errors (317/1336)

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Category 1: Build/Compilation Errors (15.0%)

Prevention Strategies

1. Pre-Commit Linting

# Add to .git/hooks/pre-commit
gofmt -w .
golangci-lint run
go build

2. IDE Integration

• Use IDE with real-time syntax checking (VS Code, GoLand)
• Enable "save on format" (gofmt)
• Configure inline linter warnings

3. Incremental Compilation

# Build frequently during development
go build ./...  # Fast incremental build

4. Type Safety

• Use strict type checking
• Avoid interface{} when possible
• Add type assertions with error checks

Effectiveness

Prevents ~60% of Category 1 errors

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Category 2: Test Failures (11.2%)

Prevention Strategies

1. Run Tests Before Commit

# Add to .git/hooks/pre-commit
go test ./...

2. Test-Driven Development (TDD)

• Write test first
• Write minimal code to pass
• Refactor

3. Fixture Management

# Version control test fixtures
git add tests/fixtures/
# Update fixtures with code changes
./scripts/update-fixtures.sh

4. Continuous Integration

# .github/workflows/test.yml
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Run tests
        run: go test ./...

Effectiveness

Prevents ~70% of Category 2 errors

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Category 3: File Not Found (18.7%) ⚠️ AUTOMATABLE

Prevention Strategies

1. Path Validation Tool ✅

# Use automation before file operations
./scripts/validate-path.sh [path]

# Returns:
# - File exists: OK
# - File missing: Suggests similar paths

2. Autocomplete

• Use shell/IDE autocomplete for paths
• Tab completion reduces typos by 95%

3. Existence Checks

// In code
if _, err := os.Stat(path); os.IsNotExist(err) {
    return fmt.Errorf("file not found: %s", path)
}

4. Working Directory Awareness

# Always know where you are
pwd
# Use absolute paths when unsure
realpath [relative_path]

Effectiveness

Prevents 65.2% of Category 3 errors with automation

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Category 4: File Size Exceeded (6.3%) ⚠️ AUTOMATABLE

Prevention Strategies

1. Size Check Tool ✅

# Use automation before reading
./scripts/check-file-size.sh [file]

# Returns:
# - OK to read
# - Too large, use pagination
# - Suggests offset/limit values

2. Pre-Read Size Check

# Manual check
wc -l [file]
du -h [file]

# If >10000 lines, use pagination

3. Use Selective Reading

# Instead of full read
head -n 1000 [file]
grep "pattern" [file]
tail -n 1000 [file]

4. Streaming for Large Files

// In code, process line-by-line
scanner := bufio.NewScanner(file)
for scanner.Scan() {
    processLine(scanner.Text())
}

Effectiveness

Prevents 100% of Category 4 errors with automation

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Category 5: Write Before Read (5.2%) ⚠️ AUTOMATABLE

Prevention Strategies

1. Read-Before-Write Check ✅

# Use automation before Write/Edit
./scripts/check-read-before-write.sh [file]

# Returns:
# - File already read: OK to write
# - File not read: Suggests Read first

2. Always Read First

# Workflow pattern
Read [file]      # Step 1: Always read
Edit [file] ...  # Step 2: Then edit

3. Use Edit for Modifications

• Edit: Requires prior read (safer)
• Write: For new files or complete rewrites

4. Session Context Awareness

• Track what files have been read
• Clear workflow: Read → Analyze → Edit

Effectiveness

Prevents 100% of Category 5 errors with automation

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Category 6: Command Not Found (3.7%)

Prevention Strategies

1. Build Before Execute

# Always build first
make build
./command [args]

2. PATH Verification

# Check command availability
which [command] || echo "Command not found, build first"

3. Use Absolute Paths

# For project binaries
./bin/meta-cc [args]
# Not: meta-cc [args]

4. Dependency Checks

# Check required tools
command -v jq >/dev/null || echo "jq not installed"
command -v go >/dev/null || echo "go not installed"

Effectiveness

Prevents ~80% of Category 6 errors

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Category 7: JSON Parsing Errors (6.0%)

Prevention Strategies

1. Validate JSON Before Use

# Validate syntax
jq . [file.json] > /dev/null

# Validate and pretty-print
cat [file.json] | python -m json.tool

2. Schema Validation

# Use JSON schema validator
jsonschema -i [data.json] [schema.json]

3. Test Fixtures with Code

// Test that fixtures parse correctly
func TestFixtureParsing(t *testing.T) {
    data, _ := os.ReadFile("tests/fixtures/sample.json")
    var result MyStruct
    if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &result); err != nil {
        t.Errorf("Fixture doesn't match schema: %v", err)
    }
}

4. Type Safety

// Use strong typing
type Config struct {
    Port int    `json:"port"`    // Not string
    Name string `json:"name"`
}

Effectiveness

Prevents ~70% of Category 7 errors

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Category 13: String Not Found (Edit) (3.2%)

Prevention Strategies

1. Always Re-Read Before Edit

# Workflow
Read [file]              # Fresh read
Edit [file] old="..." new="..."  # Then edit

2. Copy Exact Strings

• Don't retype old_string
• Copy from file viewer
• Preserves whitespace/formatting

3. Include Context

// Not: old_string="x"
// Yes: old_string="    x = 1\n    y = 2"  // Includes indentation

4. Verify File Hasn't Changed

# Check file modification time
ls -l [file]
# Or use version control
git status [file]

Effectiveness

Prevents ~80% of Category 13 errors

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Cross-Cutting Prevention Strategies

1. Automation First

High-Priority Automated Tools:

1. validate-path.sh (65.2% of Category 3)
2. check-file-size.sh (100% of Category 4)
3. check-read-before-write.sh (100% of Category 5)

Combined Impact: 23.7% of ALL errors prevented

Installation:

# Add to PATH
export PATH=$PATH:./scripts

# Or use as hooks
./scripts/install-hooks.sh

2. Pre-Commit Hooks

#!/bin/bash
# .git/hooks/pre-commit

# Format code
gofmt -w .

# Run linters
golangci-lint run

# Run tests
go test ./...

# Build
go build

# If any fail, prevent commit
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Pre-commit checks failed"
    exit 1
fi

3. Continuous Integration

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Setup Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v2
      - name: Lint
        run: golangci-lint run
      - name: Test
        run: go test ./... -cover
      - name: Build
        run: go build

4. Development Workflow

Standard Workflow:

1. Write code
2. Format (gofmt)
3. Lint (golangci-lint)
4. Test (go test)
5. Build (go build)
6. Commit

TDD Workflow:

1. Write test (fails - red)
2. Write code (passes - green)
3. Refactor
4. Repeat

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Prevention Metrics

Impact by Category

Category	Baseline Frequency	Prevention	Remaining
File Not Found (3)	250 (18.7%)	-163 (65.2%)	87 (6.5%)
File Size (4)	84 (6.3%)	-84 (100%)	0 (0%)
Write Before Read (5)	70 (5.2%)	-70 (100%)	0 (0%)
Total Automated	404 (30.2%)	-317 (78.5%)	87 (6.5%)

ROI Analysis

Time Investment:

• Setup automation: 2 hours
• Maintain automation: 15 min/week

Time Saved:

• 317 errors × 3 min avg recovery = 951 minutes = 15.9 hours
• ROI: 7.95x in first month alone

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Best Practices

Do's

✅ Use automation tools when available ✅ Run pre-commit hooks ✅ Test before commit ✅ Build incrementally ✅ Validate inputs (paths, JSON, etc.) ✅ Use type safety ✅ Check file existence before operations

Don'ts

❌ Skip validation steps to save time ❌ Commit without running tests ❌ Ignore linter warnings ❌ Manually type file paths (use autocomplete) ❌ Skip pre-read for file edits ❌ Ignore automation tool suggestions

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Source: Bootstrap-003 Error Recovery Methodology Framework: BAIME (Bootstrapped AI Methodology Engineering) Status: Production-ready, validated with 1336 errors Automation Coverage: 23.7% of errors prevented