Make a Small Change

Expected time: 30–60 minutes

Outcome: You have one focused implementation that is easy to verify and review.

Use the starter issue agreed with your onboarding partner. Good first changes have one owner, visible acceptance criteria, and no database migration, credential change, new dependency, or cross-service contract change.

Examples include correcting an empty state, improving validation copy, adding a focused test case, or clarifying documentation discovered during setup.

1. Confirm the Boundary

Before editing, write down:

• the behavior that changes;
• the behavior that must remain unchanged;
• the repository that owns it;
• how you will demonstrate success; and
• the reviewer who can confirm the intended behavior.

If the task unexpectedly changes an API payload, queue, job state, callback, or shared-data path, pause and review Cross-Repository Contracts with your reviewer.

2. Create a Focused Branch

Start from the team-approved base branch and use the naming convention from the root repository guidance. For example:

git switch -c feature/short-description

Do not mix local setup fixes, generated files, formatting sweeps, or unrelated cleanup into the starter change.

3. Find the Existing Pattern

Search for the visible text, route, component, function, or adjacent behavior before adding anything new:

rg "existing-text-or-symbol" path/to/owning/repository

Read the nearest related implementation and follow its naming, error handling, component, and validation conventions. Check for repository-specific AGENTS.md instructions before editing.

4. Make the Smallest Complete Change

Implement only what the acceptance criteria require. Preserve authorization checks, server-only secrets, callback authentication, and relative shared paths. Avoid logging private user content or credentials while debugging.

Review the working diff immediately:

git diff -- path/to/changed/files
git status --short

Make sure every changed file belongs to the issue and no environment or generated file was added accidentally.

Checkpoint

You can explain the change in two sentences, demonstrate its acceptance criteria, and account for every line in the diff.

Next: test and debug the change →