clojure-write

SKILL.md

Clojure Development Skill

Tool Preference

When clojure-mcp tools are available (e.g., clojure_eval, clojure_edit), always use them
instead of shell commands like ./bin/mage -repl. The MCP tools provide:

Direct REPL integration without shell escaping issues

Better error messages and feedback

Structural Clojure editing that prevents syntax errors

Only fall back to ./bin/mage commands when clojure-mcp is not available.

@./../_shared/development-workflow.md
@./../_shared/clojure-style-guide.md
@./../_shared/clojure-commands.md

REPL-Driven Development Workflow

Start with small, fundamental functions:

Identify the core features or functionalities required for your task.

Break each feature down into the smallest, most basic functions that can be developed and tested independently.

Write and test in the REPL:

Write the code for each small function directly in the REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop).

Test it thoroughly with a variety of inputs, including typical use cases and relevant edge cases, to ensure it
behaves as expected.

Integrate into source code:

Once a function works correctly in the REPL, move it from the REPL environment into your source code files (e.g.,
within appropriate namespaces).

Gradually increase complexity:

Build upon tested, basic functions to create more complex functions or components.

Compose smaller functions together, testing each new composition in the REPL to verify correctness step by step.

Ensure dependency testing:

Make sure every function is fully tested in the REPL before it is depended upon by other functions.

This ensures that each layer of your application is reliable before you build on it.

Use the REPL fully:

Use the REPL as your primary tool to experiment with different approaches, iterate quickly, and get immediate
feedback on your code.

Follow functional programming principles:

Keep functions small, focused, and composable.

Use Clojure's functional programming features—like immutability, higher-order functions, and the standard
library—to write concise, effective code.

How to Evaluate Code

Bottom-up Dev Loop

Write code into a file.

Evaluate the file's namespace and make sure it loads correctly with:

./bin/mage -repl --namespace metabase.app-db.connection

Call functions in the namespace with test inputs, and observe that the outputs are correct
Feel free to copy these REPL session trials into actual test cases using deftest and is.

Once you know these functions are good, return to 1, and compose them into the task that you need to build.

Writing Docstrings

A docstring is a contract for the caller, not a diary for the
implementer. It states what the function does, what it takes, returns,
throws, and the preconditions/invariants the caller must respect. Those
guarantees and requirements belong there — they are exactly what the
caller needs surfaced in the IDE.

When you find implementation context in a docstring, the default is to
relocate it, not delete it — move it to an inline comment at the
point in the body where it is actually relevant. That context is often
genuinely valuable; it is just in the wrong place (the caller should not
have to read it; the implementer standing at that line should). Delete
outright only when it is blather: self-congratulation, restating the
obvious, or documenting a property that is the expected default.

On that last case — narrating properties like "portable across all
supported appdbs" earns no sentence. If it were not portable, that is
either a bug, or it means callers must handle each case themselves — and
in that case it is the absence of the property that must be
documented. Document deviations from expectation, not conformance to it.

Heuristic: if a sentence would still be true after a full rewrite of the
body, it may belong in the docstring. If it describes how the current
body works, it belongs in the body — as an inline comment, if it is
non-obvious.

Multi-line docstrings are not banned — a genuinely non-obvious constraint
the code had to deal with can be worth explaining. But be prudent; the
failure mode is far too much detail. When tempted to write a
multi-paragraph explanatory docstring, check with the user first. And
prefer a test to prose: if a future reader thinks "that's a silly way
to do it" and changes it, a test should fail and tell them why. If that
breakage keeps happening, that is the signal a comment was warranted.

Critical Rules for Editing

Be careful with parentheses counts when editing Clojure code

After EVERY change to Clojure code, verify readability with -check-readable

End all files with a newline

When editing tabular code, where the columns line up, try to keep them aligned

Spaces on a line with nothing after it is not allowed