[IMPORTANT] Use

TaskCreate

to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

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Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

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AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

• Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal.
• Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing.
• Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain.
• Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path.
• When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site.
• Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code.
• Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks.
• Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis.
• Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly.
• Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

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Quick Summary

Goal: Compress conversation context to optimize token usage while preserving critical information.

Workflow:

1. Analyze -- Identify essential vs. expendable context
2. Compress -- Remove redundant information, summarize findings
3. Verify -- Ensure critical decisions and progress are preserved

Key Rules:

• Preserve: decisions made, files modified, current task state
• Remove: redundant tool outputs, repeated searches, verbose logs
• Use when context window approaches limits

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Compact Context

Proactively compress the current conversation context to optimize token usage.

When to Use

• Before starting a new task in a long session
• When working on multiple unrelated features
• At natural workflow checkpoints (after commits, PR creation)
• When context indicator shows high usage

Actions

1. Summarize completed work - What was done, key decisions made
2. Preserve essential context - Active file paths, current task, blockers
3. Clear redundant history - Old exploration, superseded plans
4. Update memory - Save important patterns to

   .claude/memory/

Best Practices

• Use

  /compact

  at natural breakpoints, not mid-task
• After compacting, briefly restate the current objective
• Check that critical file paths are still accessible
• If working on a bug, preserve error messages and stack traces

Context Preservation Checklist

Before compacting, ensure you've saved:

• Current branch and uncommitted changes status
• Active file paths being modified
• Any error messages or stack traces
• Key decisions and their rationale
• Pending items from todo list

Example Usage

User: /compact
Claude: Compacting context...

## Session Summary
- Implemented employee export feature
- Fixed validation bug in SaveEmployeeCommand
- Created unit tests for EmployeeHelper

## Active Context
- Branch: feature/employee-export
- Files: Employee.Application/Commands/ExportEmployees/
- Current task: Add pagination to export

## Cleared
- Exploration of unrelated notification code
- Superseded implementation approaches

Ready to continue with pagination implementation.

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Closing Reminders

• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using

  TaskCreate

  BEFORE starting
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite

  file:line

  evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act)
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact. <!-- /SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->
• MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction. <!-- /SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->