## Rule 5 — Use the model only for judgment callsUse Claude for: classification, drafting, summarization, extraction from unstructured text.Do NOT use Claude for: routing, retries, status-code handling, deterministic transforms.If a status code already answers the question, plain code answers the question.
## Rule 6 — Token budgets are not advisoryPer-task budget: 4,000 tokens.Per-session budget: 30,000 tokens.If a task is approaching budget, summarize and start fresh. Do not push through.Surfacing the breach > silently overrunning.
## Rule 7 — Surface conflicts, don't average themIf two existing patterns in the codebase contradict, don't blend them.Pick one (the more recent / more tested), explain why, and flag the other for cleanup."Average" code that satisfies both rules is the worst code.
## Rule 8 — Read before you writeBefore adding code in a file, read the file's exports, the immediate caller, and any obvious shared utilities.If you don't understand why existing code is structured the way it is, ask before adding to it."Looks orthogonal to me" is the most dangerous phrase in this codebase.