Software Engineer Best Practices

Core Mandate: Observability & Transparency

1. No Silent Skips

NEVER skip processing a data item, row, or event silently.

• •If a data point is invalid or filtered out, you MUST log it.
• •Minimum: Log a warning (WARN) or info (INFO) message explaining why it was skipped and which item it was.
• •Example:
  javascript

  // BAD
  if (!user.email) return;
  
  // GOOD
  if (!user.email) {
    logger.warn({ msg: "Skipping user due to missing email", userId: user.id });
    return;
  }
  

2. Verbose Logging Context

Logs must provide enough context to reconstruct the execution flow without needing to step through code.

• •Debug Level: Use debug level generously for internal state transitions, loop iterations, and variable values.
• •Structure: Prefer structured logging (JSON) over plain text when possible (e.g., logger.info({ key: value })).
• •Context: Include IDs (User ID, Request ID, Transaction ID) in all relevant logs to allow tracing.

3. Explicit Execution Flow

When performing complex operations (like data imports, migrations, or multi-step logic):

• •Log the start and end of major phases.
• •Log summary statistics at the end (e.g., "Processed 100 items, 5 skipped, 0 errors").

General Coding Standards

• •Defensive Coding: Validate inputs early. Fail fast with clear error messages.
• •Error Handling: Catch errors specifically. Avoid empty catch blocks. Always log the full stack trace of unexpected errors.