Every later step in this guide is independently adoptable, and the whole guide assumes you’d rather understand a pattern than install it blind. This step is for the opposite mood: one paste that sets up the baseline kit, confirming each file with you before it’s written.
What it sets up (each explained properly in its own step):
- A working agreements section in the project instruction file your agent
supports, such as
AGENTS.mdorCLAUDE.md: one-line gates distilled from failures that actually happen (step 1). - The two core verification gates: baseline before fix, small proof before long cycle (step 2).
- The two failure lists installed as review passes you can invoke by name (the prose list, the workflow list).
The paste
Set up my coding-agent baseline. Work one step at a time, show me every
file before writing it, and wait for my ok between steps.
1. Find the project instruction file this agent actually supports (AGENTS.md
for Codex, CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, or its documented equivalent).
Create or extend it with a section
"## Working agreements" holding five one-line gates:
- Baseline before fix: reproduce the bug and show the failing number
before changing code. A probe that comes back clean on its first
run is broken until proven otherwise.
- Small proof before long cycle: before any full build, render, or
deploy, run the smallest dry run that could falsify the change.
- Serve, don't describe: if the deliverable can be a running page,
render, or URL, deliver that, not prose saying it works.
- No billed calls in tests: stub every metered client; grep for live
client construction before the first test run.
- Name forks: when you hit a genuine design fork, stop and present
the options instead of picking silently.
2. Interview me, one question at a time, about failures that have
actually bitten me beyond these, and add at most three more gates in
the same one-line style. Skip anything that hasn't happened to me.
3. Offer to install the two failure-list skills through npx skills as one
managed global install for the agents I use. Show me the exact command and
wait for approval before running it. For Codex and Claude Code, use:
npx skills add chronick/lemon-agent --global --agent codex claude-code --yes
4. Look for one repeated mechanical workflow that should become a small CLI.
Propose its name, inputs, output, and verification, but do not build it yet.If you’d rather go manual
Read step 1 and step 2 and make the two edits yourself: about ten minutes, and you’ll know exactly what your agent is now promising.