Skip to content

Add a skill for modifying Python code #1384

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
nathanjmcdougall merged 1 commit into from
Mar 12, 2026
Merged

Add a skill for modifying Python code #1384

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
36 changes: 36 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/usethis-python-code-modify/SKILL.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
---
name: usethis-python-code-modify
description: Modify Python code (e.g. refactor, add new code, or delete code)
compatibility: usethis, Python, pytest
license: MIT
metadata:
version: "1.0"
---

# Modifying Python code

## Procedure

1. Run a subset of the tests for `src/<module>` regularly from the parallel module in the `tests/<module>` directory. Never run the entire test suite.
2. After finishing your modifications, run the static checks (e.g. `usethis-qa-static-checks`) to check for any issues.

## Run a subset of tests regularly

When modifying Python code, regularly run a relevant subset of the tests. The test suite is structured such that there are tests for each module in the `src` directory in the `tests` directory. For example, if we had `src/usethis/_a.py`, we would have `tests/test_a.py` with tests for that module.

### Never run the entire test suite

Running the entire test suite is unusually unnecessary and it is slow. The CI will run the entire test suite, so it is unnecessary for you to do so.

### What to do when tests fail

There are two reasons why tests might fail:

- The tests' expectations are no longer correct (e.g. because you changed the behavior of the code)
- There is a bug in the code

In the first case, update the tests to have the correct expectations, or perhaps remove the test entirely. In the second case, fix the bug in the code.

## Run static checks after finishing modifications

After finishing your modifications, run the static checks (e.g. `usethis-qa-static-checks`) to check for any issues before merging.
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion .agents/skills/usethis-python-module-layout-modify/SKILL.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
---
name: usethis-python-module-layout-modify
description: Modify the Python module layout (create, move, rename, or delete modules)
compatibility: usethis, Python
compatibility: usethis, Python, pytest
license: MIT
metadata:
version: "1.2"
Expand Down