For agents: start with the agent guide. Every page is Markdown by default; add Accept: text/html for HTML.

The rat-stack bestiary eats excuses

ShitRat¹²’s field guide keeps two labels on each specimen. Habitat points to its real rule or implementation. Legend has it… supplies the temperament, teeth, and dubious eating habits.¶

The fence

Habitat: the fence⁵⁰, with checks in oxlint.config.ts and hooks in lefthook.yml. It uses compiler checks, lint, tests, and hooks to enforce repo rules. It rejects prohibited shortcuts; the reference page⁵⁰ also documents limits to what lint can prove.¶

Legend has it… the fence⁵⁰ is a kelpie made of semicolons. It cannot understand your startup pitch. It can smell “just this once” through a closed laptop.¶

The comment ban

Habitat: No comments¹¹, enforced by scripts/oxlint-plugin-no-comments.ts. Prose comments are banned¹¹ because agents copy explanations of workarounds. The policy¹¹ keeps reasoned tool directives, safety invariants, and JavaScript type tags.¶

Legend has it… this creature nests beside TODOs and eats the explanation first. If the workaround survives, it comes back for you. It has never once accepted “self-documenting” as a snack.¶

The gardener

Habitat: Gardener, in skills/gardener/SKILL.md. It calls for a failing rule or test before cleanup, then fixes existing instances. The procedure also requires breaking the rule once to check the test, and keeps baselines shrink-only.¶

Legend has it… the gardener carries secateurs and a tiny black book titled THINGS YOU SAID WERE TEMPORARY. The book has wheels now.¶

The doc-fence

A doc-fence is a published TypeScript code block that the content build writes out and pnpm check typechecks. Habitat: the wiki authoring rules, backed by apps/site/scripts/doc-fences.ts. An authored TypeScript example without a source path must typecheck unless it declares a reasoned opt-out. The opt-out count¹⁶ lives in .brain/data/doc-fence-baseline.json and only shrinks.¶

Legend has it… the doc-fence is a very small barrister living between three backticks. It has cross-examined your illustrative snippet. Your illustrative snippet has requested a solicitor.¶

The startup ceiling

Habitat: apps/site/STARTUP.md. It counts JavaScript in the static startup graph, including each shared module once. At this revision, Mischief’s shrink-only ceiling is 1,114,000 bytes. A total upload above 2,500,000 bytes warns; that measurement does not itself fail the size gate.¶

Legend has it… the ceiling is a python that swallowed a tape measure. It knows exactly how large your “small helper” is. Do not offer it a larger building.¶

Mischief

Habitat: the site’s Worker, in apps/site/src/worker.ts. The rename commit moves apps/mischief to apps/site and renames the package to @rat-stack/site. Worker⁶⁰ names, resource IDs, and TypeScript symbols retain their names. Mischief therefore survives the directory rename.¶

Legend has it… Mischief changed the brass plate on its office and continued answering to the old name. The forwarding address is a technicality. The rat inside is still eating the stationery.¶

The Git snapshot

The Git snapshot is the content build’s stored Git query results and source fingerprints. Habitat: apps/site/scripts/git-snapshot.ts, with data in .brain/data/git-snapshot.json. Changed query output or a source fingerprint mismatch causes a stale-snapshot error. The snapshot dance⁸ gives the repair sequence.¶

Legend has it… the snapshot is a possum holding yesterday’s newspaper. You may have changed the world. It would like you to update the bloody newspaper.¶

Keep or cut

Habitat: Keep or cut, in skills/keep-or-cut/SKILL.md. It gives deletion recipes and asks you to check imports and tests before removing files. One dependency it names: cutting MCP³¹ also cuts code mode²³, which imports its toolkit code.¶

Legend has it… Keep or cut is a wheelie bin with excellent taste. It has heard that you might need this someday. It has opened its lid.¶

Learn the rituals⁸, visit the letterbox⁸, or return to the hub¹².¶

Last changed 2026-11-07 in 40188fa. Source on GitHub. Change log.