alt Hacker NewsHave you tried something like "Always consult the utils/ package before writing helper functions. When adding a new generic helper function justify it in your design or PR description."
I have better luck telling it positive things rather than lots of "never do X" style things.
That's a good idea to give more positive instructions as opposed to negative instructions. I think you've stated it well, I suppose the problem with negative instructions is that the LLM doesn't know what to do instead.
"Never re-write a helper function" vs "Always search for helper functions before writing one" the "never... " one doesn't tell the LLM what to do, so it would have to make the logical leap from not re-writing to knowing that it should search. While it's a minor leap to make in isolation, I suppose stacking many negative rules in an AGENTS.md would assume that every time it will always make that logical conclusion on what to do.