Pro Tips & Best Practices

Expert-level tips for maximizing productivity with Boring. From beginners to senior developers.

🎯 For Beginners

Start with Vibe Coding

You: /vibe_start Build a to-do app with React
Boring: Let me ask some questions first...
       1. Do you want authentication?
       2. Local storage or database?
       3. Any specific styling framework?

Why it works: Vibe start guides you through requirements before coding.

Use Quick Fix Often

/quick_fix

Automatically fixes all linting errors, import sorting, and formatting issues.

Let AI Read Your Errors

You: I'm getting "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'foo'"
Boring: Encountered ❌ ModuleNotFoundError.
        Running Active Recall...
        Found pattern: "Missing dependency"
        Solution: pip install foo

⚡ For Intermediate Developers

Tip 1: SpecKit Workflow

Before writing code, use the 5-step specification workflow:

graph LR
    A[1. Constitution] --> B[2. Clarify]
    B --> C[3. Plan]
    C --> D[4. Checklist]
    D --> E[5. Analyze]

"Measure Twice, Cut Once" - AI implementation!

Tip 2: Use Hybrid Mode

Task Type	Recommended Approach
Small bug fixes	`boring_apply_patch`
New features	`boring start` + SpecKit
Code review	`boring_code_review`
Refactoring	`boring_checkpoint` + `boring run`

Tip 3: Incremental Verification

# Only verify changed files (fast!)
boring verify --incremental

# Force full verification before release
boring verify --force --level FULL

Tip 4: Accumulate Knowledge

Develop → AI fixes errors → Recorded in .boring/memory
Project ends → boring_learn → Patterns saved to .boring/brain
Next project → AI auto-references past solutions!

🚀 For Senior Developers

Tip 5: Custom Quality Rules

Create .boring.toml with project-specific settings:

[boring.quality_gates]
min_coverage = 80              # High bar for production
max_complexity = 10            # Keep it simple
max_file_lines = 300           # Smaller files

[boring.linter_configs]
ruff_line_length = 100
ruff_ignore = ["E501", "W503"]

[boring.prompts]
judge_system = """
You are a senior Python architect focused on:
- SOLID principles
- Clean architecture
- Performance optimization
"""

Tip 6: Multi-Project RAG

boring_rag_search(
    query="authentication middleware",
    additional_roots=[
        "/path/to/shared-libs",
        "/path/to/other-project"
    ]
)

Search across multiple codebases simultaneously.

Tip 7: Contrastive Evaluation

# Compare two implementations
boring_evaluate(
    level="PAIRWISE",
    target_a="src/auth_v1.py",
    target_b="src/auth_v2.py"
)

AI judges which implementation is better, with bias mitigation.

Tip 8: Security Sandbox with Shadow Mode

# Set STRICT mode for production
boring_shadow_mode(action="set_level", level="STRICT")

🧠 Cognitive Evolution (V11.2)

Tip 9: Levering Deep Thinking

Use "Deep Thinking" for architectural decisions or complex refactors.

"Analyze this architecture using Deep Thinking and suggest 3 refactoring paths."

Tip 10: Critical Thinking Audit

Use "Critical Thinking" for security reviews or logic verification.

"Perform a Critical Thinking audit on this payment flow for potential race conditions."

🔧 Performance Tips

Tip 14: Warm the Cache

# First run builds cache
boring verify

# Subsequent runs are fast
boring verify  # Uses cache

Tip 15: Parallel Verification

# .boring.toml
[boring.performance]
parallel_workers = 8  # Use all CPU cores

Tip 16: Selective RAG Indexing

# Only index specific directories
boring rag index --paths "src/" "lib/"

🛡️ Security Tips

Tip 17: Always Use Shadow Mode in Production

# smithery.yaml or MCP config
SHADOW_MODE_LEVEL: "STRICT"
BORING_ALLOW_DANGEROUS: false

Tip 18: Protected File Operations

# Use boring_write_file instead of native write_file
boring_write_file(path="config.py", content="...")

Tip 19: Secret Scanning

# Scan before commit
boring_security_scan --scan-type secrets

🔔 BoringDone Notifications

Tip 20: Completion Notifications (V12.2)

Get notified when AI tasks complete, so you don't have to watch the screen!

# AI automatically notifies you when a task is done
boring_done(task_name="Code Review", success=True)

Automatic Integrations: - ✅ FlowEngine completion - ✅ AgentLoop completion - ✅ boring verify completion