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fphilipeon Commit description as a thinking tool

I have this rule in my global AGENTS.md:

> When writing a commit message, briefly explain at a high level what was done (the details are in the code). Explain the why of the commit; if you don't know that, ask me.

It works quite well. When it doesn't have it in context, it does ask.

fphilipeon Claude Code now reads AGENTS.md if there is no Claude.md

    ln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md

fphilipeon Stacked PRs are now live on GitHub

I was using my usual stacked PR approach without the CLI and it detected the stack. So I think the CLI just does the heavy lifting for you (although I prefer to stick to vanilla git rather than learning a new tool).

fphilipeon A shell colon does nothing. Use it anyway

I use the colon as EDITOR with Git when I want to do an interactive rebase combined with auto squash without having to edit the todo list.

I have an alias[1] for that which I call a quick interactive rebase:

    riq = -c sequence.editor=: rebase --interactive

[1]: https://github.com/fphilipe/dotfiles/blob/94f2ff70bade070694...

fphilipeon Write code like a human will maintain it

This is what has been frustrating me most lately. Even though I have a rule in my global CLAUDE.md that says:

> Only write comments to explain the why when it is not obvious from the code (rationale, gotchas, constraints). Do not comment on the what — well-named code already says it. Do not comment on how a framework works.

It still keeps adding these bad comments. When I then ask it to review the comments based on my preferences it then deletes most of them or improves them.

Today I asked Claude why it disrespects my preference and it said that the surrounding code was like that and it followed that style. It suggested I add this line to my global CLAUDE.md file:

> The comment rule above beats the style of the surrounding code: neighboring files with what-style comments are not license to write more of them, and comments carried along when porting or copying code must be re-judged against the rule, not kept for consistency.

Let's see if that improves things.

fphilipeon Local Git remotes

At that point you might as well use a worktree[1].

[1]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree

fphilipeon Open source Kanban desktop app that runs parallel agents on every card

These pages do look good. But they all just look the same. And I'm getting bored of them.

I open such a page and I immediately know it was Claude that produced it (probably end-to-end). Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it lacks soul… and that makes me kind of sad.

fphilipeon Open source Kanban desktop app that runs parallel agents on every card

I wonder the same. The answer I usually get from people who do manage is that they don't look at the code – or at least not in detail.

Personally, I always end up tweaking something the agent produced. I wonder if I should let go of that control...

fphilipeon Show HN: I reverse engineered Apple's video wallpapers

It features the current date and time with seconds, so it must be rendered on the fly.

fphilipeon GitHub Stacked PRs

Sure, that's possible. I can also use the GitHub app and use a Git abstraction where I don't have to understand Git at all.

The point is that I want to use Git, a tool and skill that is portable to other platforms.

fphilipeon GitHub Stacked PRs

My git config for pushing is set to push.default=current. For rebased stacks I have an alias that does this:

    git --config push.default=matching push --force-with-lease --force-if-includes

In other words, I force push all branches that have a matching upstream by changing my config on the fly.

fphilipeon GitHub Stacked PRs

I've been doing stacked PRs for ~2 years now. Thus, I don't quite see the need for this CLI. Git has had some additions in the last few years that make this work natively – specifically the --update-refs flag[1] or the rebase.updateRefs config. Combined with `git commit --fixup`, rebase.autoStash, and rebase.autoSquash rebasing stacks becomes a breeze (as long as you work off from the tip of your stack). Add in git-absorb[2] and the heavy-lifting is taken care of.

My biggest gripe with GitHub when working with stacks – and something that's not clarified in these docs – is whether fast-forward merges are possible. Its "Merge with rebase" button always rewrites the commit. They do mention that the stack needs to be rebased in order to merge it. My workaround has been `git merge --ff-only top-branch-of-stack` to merge the entire stack locally into main (or anything in between actually) and then push. GitHub neatly recognizes that each PR in the stack is now in main and marks them all as merged. If there are subsequent PRs that weren't merged it updates the base branch.

Having said that, it's great to see GitHub getting a proper UI for this. It's also great that it understands the intent that branch B that goes on top of branch A is a stack and thus CI runs against. I just hope that it's not mandatory to use their CLI in order to create stacks. They do cover this briefly in the FAQ[3], but it might be necessary to use `gh stack init --adopt branch-a branch-b branch-c`. On the other hand, if that removes the need to manually create the N PRs for my stack, that's nice.

[1]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rebase#Documentation/git-rebase...

[2]: https://github.com/tummychow/git-absorb

[3]: https://github.github.com/gh-stack/faq/#will-this-work-with-...

fphilipeon I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs

I have a global setting for that. Whenever I work in a repo that deviates from that I override it locally. I have a few other aliases that rely on the default branch, such as “switch to the default branch”. So I usually notice it quite quickly when the value is off in a particular repo.

fphilipeon I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs

Here's my take on the one-liner that I use via a `git tidy` alias[1]. A few points:

* It ensures the default branch is not deleted (main, master)

* It does not touch the current branch

* It does not touch the branch in a different worktree[2]

* It also works with non-merge repos by deleting the local branches that are gone on the remote

    git branch --merged "$(git config init.defaultBranch)" \
    | grep -Fv "$(git config init.defaultBranch)" \
    | grep -vF '*' \
    | grep -vF '+' \
    | xargs git branch -d \
    && git fetch \
    && git remote prune origin \
    && git branch -v \
    | grep -F '[gone]' \
    | grep -vF '*' \
    | grep -vF '+' \
    | awk '{print $1}' \
    | xargs git branch -D

[1]: https://github.com/fphilipe/dotfiles/blob/ba9187d7c895e44c35...

[2]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree

fphilipeon Discussion of the Benefits and Drawbacks of the Git Pre-Commit Hook

I'm of the opinion that Git hooks are personal. That's why they're not part of the source code itself. I make extensive use of hooks, but they're tailored to my needs.

Note that you can skip hooks by passing the --no-verify flag to subcommands. Comes in handy when they're slow and you know that you've just fixed the wrong formatting that the previous invocation of your pre-commit hook complained about.

fphilipeon Want to piss off your IT department? Are the links not malicious looking enough?

In addition to making the link look shady, it adds considerable lag to opening the link.

I'm using Finicky[1] on Mac to rewrite the URL by extracting the original URL from the query params[2].

1: https://github.com/johnste/finicky

2: https://github.com/fphilipe/dotfiles/blob/31e3d18fe5f51b2fd8...

fphilipeon Beej's Guide to Git

Not wrong, but one thing I did not spot in all the great explanations related to HEAD is that @ is an alias for HEAD that is a lot easier to type.

fphilipeon Git-cliff – Generate changelog from the Git history

I am definitely more in the changelog-as-a-file camp. From https://keepachangelog.com/:

> Using commit log diffs as changelogs is a bad idea: they're full of noise. Things like merge commits, commits with obscure titles, documentation changes, etc.

> The purpose of a commit is to document a step in the evolution of the source code. Some projects clean up commits, some don't.

> The purpose of a changelog entry is to document the noteworthy difference, often across multiple commits, to communicate them clearly to end users.

fphilipeon Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?

https://phili.pe

Did hit the front page a few times with some of my posts:

- http://phili.pe/posts/postgresql-on-the-command-line/ - 4th on https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2015-10-27

- https://phili.pe/posts/timestamps-and-time-zones-in-postgres... - 7th on https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-03-31

- https://phili.pe/posts/using-grep-for-simple-ci-tasks/ - 29th on https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2022-01-14

fphilipeon Hardening macOS

If you never use those apps, you can also remove the executable flag with `chmod -x` and they won’t open anymore.

fphilipeon Keep a Changelog

The merge commit also includes the link to the PR when merged via the GitHub UI (or locally via `hub merge $PR_URL`).

fphilipeon Instagram Is Facebook Now

> Facebook aside you really see this across the board on almost any platform, that once the product reaches it's 1.0 stage, (where it is good, does what the users want it to do, and has realised its vision) it begins a process of gradual decay, as the focus of the product managers (now panicking to find some statistics to improve to show their bosses) shifts from "building functionality" to "increasing engagement/retention/active users per month".

Best example for me: Revolut. The app and product as a whole was so simple and good.

One year ago (or maybe 1.5 years ago) it started going downhill, fast. The app got so complicated that I often simply cannot find what I'm looking for (my card or the balance in a specific currency). Everyone I know using Revolut has the same complaint, especially older people like my parents or in-laws.

I don't get it and it makes me sad.

fphilipeon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2021)

Valora Digital | Senior iOS | Full-time | Zurich, Switzerland | ONSITE or REMOTE (CET +- 2h)

Valora Digital[0] is the digital unit of Valora[1], a European retailer with 2700 stores across 5 countries. We are tackling interesting challenges in areas such as Autonomous Stores (think Amazon Go), E-commerce & Delivery, Loyalty, Payments and Process Improvement. For this purpose we are building up a development team from scratch. You will be one of the first engineers and will have a big part in shaping the culture as well as choosing our stack. We are looking to bring the startup ethos to the corporate world and get to combine the best of both worlds: ample funding, a huge customer base to deploy to and lots of freedom.

We are using Swift and SwiftUI to build a modular architecture that will underpin a portfolio of apps. I'm head of mobile and an iOS developer myself.

You can find the detailed job description here: https://en.valora.career/job/zurich/senior-software-engineer...

[0]: https://valora.digital

[1]: https://valora.com

fphilipeon Tmux lets you select and copy text with your keyboard

I can highly recommend these tmux plugins that enhance the selection experience:

- https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-yank

- https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-open

- https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-copycat

fphilipeon On navigating a large codebase

This is a skill I've noticed that many developers don't have, or don't have sufficiently. This lack manifests itself e.g. when I review a PR that removes feature XYZ. I do `rg xyz` and `fd xyz` to see if there's anything that was forgotten to be removed related to that feature. Very often there is.

fphilipeon Software effort estimation is mostly fake research

Great anecdote posted here a few years ago: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-software-development-task-esti...

fphilipeon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2020)

Valora Digital | Android (Kotlin) | Full-time | Zurich, Switzerland | ONSITE or REMOTE (CET +- 2h)

Valora Digital[0] is the newly founded digital unit of Valora[1], a European retailer with 2700 stores across 5 countries. We are tackling interesting challenges in areas such as Autonomous Stores (think Amazon Go), E-commerce & Delivery, Loyalty, Payments and Process Improvement. For this purpose we are building up a development team from the ground up. You will be one of the first engineers and will have a big part in shaping the culture as well as choosing our stack. We are looking to bring the startup ethos to the corporate world and get to combine the best of both worlds: ample funding, a huge customer base to deploy to and lots of freedom. I'm the head of Mobile and am looking for Android developers to join our Mobile team.

You'll find the job description on Stack Overflow[2] but you can also get in touch directly at philipe.fatio@valora.com.

[0]: https://valora.digital

[1]: https://valora.com

[2]: https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/446492/software-engineer-andr...

fphilipeon Git is too hard

I use git-show a lot to look at individual commits. Would add that to the list.

fphilipeon macOS Big Sur

My wife does the same. The other day she wanted to open a new tab and the button was disabled. She had reached the limit of 500 tabs.

fphilipeon Show HN: I made a site where you practice typing by retyping entire novels

While trying it out, I've realized how I rely on ctrl-h as a more comfy backspace. I think this an Emacs binding that macOS supports system-wide. Would be great if that was supported :)