consistent formatting choices

Maintain consistent formatting and style choices throughout your codebase to improve readability and maintainability. This includes consistent variable syntax, proper quoting practices, and organized list formatting.

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Prompt

Reviewer Prompt

Maintain consistent formatting and style choices throughout your codebase to improve readability and maintainability. This includes consistent variable syntax, proper quoting practices, and organized list formatting.

Key practices:

  • Use consistent variable syntax (either always use braces ${VAR} or don’t, but be consistent within the same file/project)
  • Apply consistent quoting for shell variables, especially for file paths and values that might contain spaces
  • Format package lists and similar multi-item declarations one-per-line, sorted alphabetically for better maintainability

Example of good formatting:

# Consistent variable quoting
docker build -f "${DOCKERFILE}" -t "${TAG}" --target "${DOCKER_BUILD_TARGET}" .

# Well-formatted package list
RUN pip install \
    tox==2.1.1 \
    virtualenv==16.2.0

Consistent formatting reduces cognitive load for code reviewers and makes diffs cleaner when modifications are needed.

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