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#642 Add comment discipline to agent guidance and review pipeline - #659

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May 26, 2026
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#642 Add comment discipline to agent guidance and review pipeline#659
williamthorsen merged 7 commits into
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642

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@williamthorsen williamthorsen commented May 26, 2026 •
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What

Introduces a comment-discipline rule that instructs agents writing code to omit common over-commenting patterns: next-line paraphrasing, conversation references, ephemeral ticket references, tutorial-style file headers, and defensive prose about unreachable cases. /review-branch now flags any such patterns that slip through.

Why

Agent-generated code in interactive sessions has been memorializing the conversation that led to the code: chat-time rationale, ticket and PR references, defensive prose about unreachable cases, paraphrasing the next line. The reviewer pipeline previously flagged only the narrowest case (redundant comments), so this verbosity reached the codebase routinely and had to be caught by hand. Codifying the rule and expanding reviewer coverage closes the gap between what a human reviewer catches and what the review pipeline catches automatically.

The change is scoped to agent-guidance content (no executable code), and it is agent-agnostic: orchestrated coding subagents load the new rule through their existing skill-loading mechanism, and the reviewer expansion runs in the standard /review-branch pipeline. There are no platform-specific hooks.

Details

🎉 Features

  • Adds a comment-discipline reference doc establishing a positive baseline (one-line description per non-trivial function, method, class, or component), ten deletion rules (paraphrasing the next line, conversation references, ephemeral artifact references, library re-teaching, unreachable-case defenses, duplicated facts, tutorial-style file headers, process commentary, domain leaks in shared code, "what" inline comments), two carve-outs (test comments with legitimate reasons and tight eslint-disable rationales), and a before/after example.
  • Adds an audit-checklist partial that is transcluded into the consumer skills. The per-comment deletion test ("would a competent reviewer reading the code lose anything if I deleted this comment?") fires at draft time.
  • Wires the rule into the skills that orchestrated coding subagents load, so the audit is in front of the agent when it writes code.
  • Adds a ## Test comments section that lists the legitimate test-comment reasons at the point where test code is written.
  • Expands the simplification reviewer's scope so /review-branch flags all ten comment-discipline patterns and includes a calibrated severity example (a handful of redundant comments at low, file-header-scale violations at medium).

♻️ Refactoring

  • Centralizes the description-baseline rule in the comment-discipline reference. The pre-existing duplicate in the code-organization skill (which stated a stricter rule with no trivial-code carve-out) is replaced by a one-line pointer to the canonical doc, eliminating drift risk between two files that load into the same context.

Closes #642

@williamthorsen
agents|feat: Add comment-discipline rule with audit checklist
0e8f7cd 
Introduces a comment-discipline rule for agents that write or review code. The rule defines what does and does not belong in a code comment, with a positive baseline (one-line description per non-trivial function, method, class, or component) and ten deletion rules covering common over-commenting patterns: paraphrasing the next line, conversation references, ephemeral artifact references, library re-teaching, defensive prose about unreachable cases, duplicated facts, tutorial file headers, process commentary, domain leaks in shared code, and "what" inline comments.

Two carve-outs preserve legitimate test-comment notes (non-obvious setup, indirect assertions, intentional skips) and tight `eslint-disable` rationales that name only the specific suppression. An audit checklist captures the per-comment deletion test ("would a competent reviewer lose anything if I deleted this?") for use during authorship and review.
@williamthorsen
agents|feat: Wire comment discipline into code-authoring skills
493585c 
The comment-discipline rule and audit checklist are now reachable from the skills that fire when an agent writes code. Orchestrated coding picks them up automatically through declared skill loads, so the per-comment deletion test is in context at draft time.

Test-comment carve-outs (non-obvious setup, indirect assertions, intentional skips) are listed at the point where test code is written.
@williamthorsen
agents|feat: Flag comment-discipline violations in code review
9cc1fbe 
Code review now reports comment-discipline violations as findings. Patterns flagged include tutorial-style file headers, conversation memorialization (chat-time rationale, ticket or PR references in comments), library re-teaching, duplicated facts, process commentary, domain leaks in shared code, and `eslint-disable` rationales that overshoot the specific suppression.

Severity examples distinguish a handful of redundant comments (low) from file-header-scale violations (medium).
@williamthorsen
agents|refactor: Centralize description baseline in comment-discipline
171032a 
The positive baseline for code descriptions (one-line description per non-trivial function, method, class, or component) is now stated only in the comment-discipline reference. The previous duplicate in the documentation conventions stated a stricter rule with no trivial-code carve-out, which would drift from the canonical statement on any future edit.

The Documentation section retains its form-focused subsections (JSDoc parameters, section separators) and points to the canonical baseline.
@williamthorsen
agents|fix: Split conversation and artifact rules in comment audit
d201802 
The comment-audit checklist now lists conversation references and ephemeral artifact references as separate items. The sibling-file pattern (a comment that points to another file recoverable by grep, e.g., "mirrors `Foo.spec.tsx`") is added explicitly. Previously the two cases were merged into one bullet, making the sibling-file case less likely to be caught at draft time.
@williamthorsen
agents|fix: Flag "what" inline comments in simplification reviewer
4522311 
Code review now flags inline "what" comments (comments that describe what the code does instead of explaining why a non-obvious decision was made) as comment-discipline violations. Previously the reviewer scope covered the closely related restatement pattern but not the broader "what" framing.
@williamthorsen
agents|refactor: Fix capitalization and wrapping
622edc1
@williamthorsen williamthorsen added feature Added or improved external functionality scope:agents labels May 26, 2026
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@williamthorsen williamthorsen self-assigned this May 26, 2026
@williamthorsen
williamthorsen marked this pull request as ready for review May 26, 2026 03:44
@williamthorsen
williamthorsen merged commit 6e48d41 into main May 26, 2026
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williamthorsen deleted the 642 branch May 26, 2026 04:25
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williamthorsen added a commit that referenced this pull request Jul 18, 2026
@williamthorsen
release: kb-v0.2.0 run-core-v0.2.1 agents-v0.3.0 factory-v0.2.1 mcp-v…
6cb5983 
…0.2.1

agents-v0.3.0
- #1019 feat: Add a personal rulebook with em-dash usage rule (#1024)
- #1005 internal: Emit session-lifecycle events via harness hooks (#1021)
- #1014 fix: Rebuild post-review next steps on the reviewer/author role model (#1020)
- #1008 feat: Add a managed event-hook utility for Rovo config.yml (#1017)
- #1004 feat: Add an implement-plan skill for the implementation phase (#1016)
- #1009 fix: Sweep ticket and plan for missed decisions before saving (#1015)
- #1007 internal: Add a managed hook-entry utility for Claude Code settings.json (#1011)
- #1000 feat!: Rename and generalize the upgrade-dependencies skill (#1003)
- #881 tooling: Migrate build to nmr-compile and give mcp an entry point (#1001)
- #987 internal: Instrument review-branch, respond-to-review, and create-pr with lifecycle events (#999)
- #986 internal: Add an emit-event skill helper and lifecycle event envelope v0 (#998)
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #991 refactor: Remove client-side event-immutability enforcement (#997)
- #993 refactor: Separate the smoke-test code from the bundle build tooling (#996)
- #994 fix: Remove the visualization hooks that logged an error on every prompt (#995)
- #740 fix: Recommend refine-plan only when decisions remain unsettled (#990)
- #989 refactor: Give the store's on-disk layout a single owner (#992)
- #973 fix: Carry comment discipline in every agent that writes comments (#983)
- #978 feat: Add an action-items convention that separates asks from prose (#982)
- #972 fix: Support events from a harness that exposes no session id (#981)
- #971 fix: Inline output-shaping specs so skills cannot improvise them (#980)
- #976 feat!: Disambiguate the memory-store selector and accept its displayed label (#979)
- #927 feat: Frame agent-guidance changes as instructions, not accomplished behavior (#970)
- #964 feat: Default to folding discovered work into the current change (#969)
- #962 feat: Standardize ticket-authoring doctrine across the emitting skills (#968)
- #958 refactor: Route the capture-event add path through KbEvent (#966)
- #853 refactor: Replace rule engine with a type-blind vault-integrity layer (#961)
- #852 refactor: Route the assertion write commands through KbAssertion (#959)
- #907 fix: Render self-referential and cross-skill invocations per harness (#957)
- #953 feat: Resolve the PR URL from a PR-based branch identity (#956)
- #914 feat: Add spike mode to the ticket and plan authoring skills (#955)
- #950 feat: Support a PR number as a branch and artifact identifier (#954)
- #938 feat: Support collections from user-declared content sources (#951)
- #939 fix: Dedup migrated memories by topic, not session id alone (#949)
- #919 feat: Keep implementation detail out of ticket drafts (#948)
- #933 feat: Report the source each deployed artifact resolved from (#947)
- #940 feat: Add a feedback-memories list command and rename the toolbox (#946)
- #932 feat: Support skills and subagents from user-declared content sources (#945)
- #936 fix: Attribute migrated feedback events to their origin project (#942)
- #934 refactor: Narrow resolveClosure to SourceResolver only (#941)
- #924 feat: Resolve rulebooks from user-declared content sources (#935)
- #859 feat: Scope feedback-memory migration per store and ground triage in each project (#931)
- #650 feat: Add migrate-feedback-memories skill to route memories home (#930)
- fix: Special-case the # prefix in create-ticket id construction
- #721 feat: Route generalizable feedback to capture-feedback, not memory (#929)
- #847 fix: Prevent create-ticket from mis-associating backlog tickets (#928)
- #922 feat: Default interactive chat to concise with deep-dive opt-in (#926)
- #921 feat: Extend compose-time concision to plans, devlogs, summaries (#925)
- docs: Add ambient-hosts to guidance README
- #920 feat: Establish the concision spine and wire the ticket and review-comment gates (#923)
- #883 tests: Run real-install tests only as a deliberate integration step (#917)
- #751 refactor: Set the shell-conventions rulebook to skill-only delivery (#916)
- #886 feat!: Deploy harness-specific skills via the declarative mechanism (#912)
- #877 feat: Generate project-scoped Rovo Dev prompts.yml on sync (#911)
- #904 feat: Make events editable until pushed to the remote (#910)
- #879 fix: Declare cross-artifact runtime dependencies (#908)
- #897 feat: Surface event impact in recall and filter by it (#906)
- #898 feat: Add `{skill:}` and `{subagent:}` invocation tokens (#905)
- #899 fix: Skip support directories with no installable files (#903)
- #821 feat: Add a mutable impact rating to events (#901)
- #895 fix: Deploy a subagent's injected skills with sync (#900)
- fmt: Auto-format
- #880 feat: Add authoring-guidance rulebook for agents (#896)
- #878 feat!: Retire unconditional install (#894)
- #892 feat: Apply skill transforms when sync deploys declared skills (#893)
- #888 feat: Resolve and persist ticket URLs for bare or omitted references (#890)
- #887 feat: Add collection members key with computed @library membership (#889)
- #857 feat: Add a user-global deployment domain via sync --global (#884)
- #871 feat: Add capture-feedback skill (#882)
- #856 feat: Add collections and transitive dependency resolution (#876)
- #855 feat: Make subagents declarable and deployable via codeassembly.yaml (#875)
- #854 feat!: Make skills declarable & deployable via codeassembly.yaml (#873)
- #851 feat: Add kb-retrieve-events for event recall (#872)
- #865 tests: Rationalize install-command tests onto fixtures to remove timeout flakes (#870)
- #860 feat: Add library list command to enumerate artifacts (#868)
- #850 feat: Add kb-update-events for batch event editing (#867)
- #733 feat!: Introduce the codeassembly.yaml rulebook declaration format (#866)
- #843 fix: Wire comment-discipline into respond-to-review (#845)
- #834 fix: Remove dangling owned symlinks during uninstall (#844)
- #830 feat: Name skill-delivered rulebooks with a consult- prefix (#839)
- #833 fix: Make a no-findings review a valid, full-score result (#838)
- #827 feat: Rename collaboration skill to collaborate and make it user-invocable (#837)
- #828 fix: Prune stale files on install (#836)
- #820 feat!: Rename platform to harness (runtime) and scm (VCS host) (#832)
- #824 fix: Scope kb-retrieve recall to the configured note set (#829)
- #818 tests: Use full timestamps in test fixtures, not bare dates (#826)
- #816 fix: Write kb-add assertions under content/assertions (#819)
- #813 fix: Stop --retag from bumping updated for curatorial tag edits (#823)
- #817 feat: Record the agent harness in captured events (#822)
- #802 fix: Gate kb-add's registry default behind an explicit @default sentinel (#814)
- #775 feat: Default ticket-emitting skills to concise tickets (#811)
- #785 feat: Add a kb-edit operation to append addressed-by references (#808)
- #784 fix: Stop reviewers emitting self-disqualifying findings (#804)
- #800 fix: Require an explicit --store on every capture-event call (#806)
- #803 fix: Repair collaboration skill's mistake-recording step (#805)
- #796 refactor: Rename PlatformConfig dir-name fields to *DirName (#801)
- #791 fix: Expand templated script paths in installed subagents (#797)
- #783 feat: Store and reuse resolved ticket and PR URLs in the branch manifest (#789)
- #780 fix: Exclude top-level skills/_partials/ from skill installation (#788)
- #763 feat: Add an addressed-by/addresses relation linking problems to their responses (#787)
- #779 feat!: Designate the default KB with a top-level default_kb pointer (#786)
- #774 feat: Unify plan and design-and-plan on a shared plan template (#782)
- #771 refactor: Consolidate duplicated parseTagList and readAll helpers (#781)
- #766 feat!: Adopt explicit-UTC second-precision timestamps for KB date fields (#773)
- tests: Drop the removed immutable field from a kb-retrieve helper
- #749 feat: Honor the schema recall policy in kb-retrieve (#764)
- #748 refactor: Remove the unused immutable record-type schema flag (#765)
- #756 feat: Rename the Diátaxis --type flag to --diataxis (#757)
- #720 feat: Add a kb create command to provision new KB stores (#755)
- #732 feat: Add skill delivery mode for rulebooks (#754)
- #741 fix: Resolve review spec source by recency with an explicit override (#753)
- #734 refactor: Replace js-yaml with the yaml library (#743)
- #727 refactor: Redesign the record taxonomy around a stored recordType discriminant (#742)
- #731 feat: Add init and sync commands for the project rulebook library (#738)
- #718 feat: Add a config-driven kb check CLI and library export (#735)
- #724 refactor: Rename @codeassembly/kb-core to @codeassembly/kb (#726)
- #715 fix: Drop branch-cleanup advice and deletion-status fields from merge output (#722)
- #716 feat: Relocate event records to content/events/ and document the fix-tag convention (#719)
- #714 feat: Add event capture and a kind-aware record-store core (#717)
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #706 fix: Reframe legacy finding-ID rule to prevent ID collisions (#712)
- #709 feat: Skip HTML sanitization for the markdown Jira-update tool (#710)
- #704 fix: Give the lede pipeline authority to cut supplied mechanism (#708)
- #702 refactor: Deduplicate the isRecord type guard across factory and run-core (#707)
- #661 fix: Self-anchor agents helpers at the git repo root (#703)
- #690 refactor: Deduplicate filesystem-existence and type-guard helpers (#700)
- #684 test: Pin --kb resolution for a single-entry default registry (#698)
- #689 feat: Consolidate the kb.yaml loader and surface registry defects in kb-retrieve (#695)
- #683 fix: Forbid interactive UI controls when prompting the user (#692)
- #685 refactor: Consolidate acceptance-criteria scaffold into a partial (#691)
- #670 fix: Keep change-summary ledes outcome-shaped (#688)
- #671 feat: Treat suppression directives as reviewable design signals (#686)
- #678 fix: Stop resolving the pr field at artifact-write time; set it only in PR-aware skills (#687)
- #638 feat: Add kb-curate skill for vault-wide KB hygiene (#681)
- #662 feat: Add /revise-comments to audit and edit existing comments (#680)
- #674 fix: Tighten review-finding thresholds for genuine improvements (#679)
- #673 feat: Add kb-edit skill for post-creation note maintenance (#676)
- #672 fix: Move user-global KB config to `~/.agents/kb.yaml` (#675)
- #657 feat: Add test-structure discipline to agent guidance and review pipeline (#669)
- #658 fix: Fix `&` corruption in rendered titles on bash 5.2+ (#667)
- #664 fix: Tolerate unknown keys in `.agents/preferences.yaml` (#666)
- #653 fix: Replace `get-session-context` skill with a bundled TS deriver (#663)
- #642 feat: Add comment discipline to agent guidance and review pipeline (#659)
- #643 fix: Add update-jira-ticket pre-flight validator and rework recovery protocol (#654)
- #637 feat: Add kb-add skill for capturing knowledge-base notes (#652)
- #636 feat: Add kb-retrieve skill for querying the knowledge base (#645)
- #629 fix: Skip .DS_Store and stray entries during rovodev install (#633)
- #631 fix: Make installable content paths resolve outside the monorepo (#632)
- #567 feat: Surface ticket-vs-PR-description divergence in /review-pr (#628)
- #624 fix: Make resolve-frontmatter work from any subdirectory (#627)
- #621 fix: Codify dispatch precondition for resolve-frontmatter (#626)
- #592 feat: Apply recommendation gradient to all substantive option choices (#625)
- #558 feat: Add changelog-writer subagent (#620)
- #617 fix: Make skill tool-name references platform-portable (#619)
- #603 tests: Add edge-case tests for artifact-frontmatter YAML emission (#618)
- #599 feat: Decouple review dispositions from reviewer framing (#616)
- #611 feat: Stop reporting "behavior unchanged" in changelog entries (#615)
- #608 feat: Discourage code-level detail in design-and-plan tickets (#614)
- #607 fix: Use {platform_home_dir} for helper-script invocations (#613)
- feat: Add guidance about capitalization after a colon
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #606 tooling: Allow test:sh to run selected shellspec tests (#610)
- #605 fix: Fix shellspec test suite hangs in agents package (#609)
- #595 refactor: Emit complete YAML frontmatter from resolve-frontmatter.sh (#604)
- #593 feat: Add change-narrating voice and jargon to lede-voice (#602)
- #597 feat: Make subagent tool-name references platform-portable (#601)
- refactor: Fix capitalization in subagent definitions
- #572 feat: Revise `respond-to-review` to be less deferential to reviewer recommendations (#600)
- #589 feat: Guide agents to prefer partials over duplicated content (#598)
- #537 feat: Unify artifact frontmatter under a canonical metadata schema (#596)
- #583 feat: Require repo-relative paths in review finding locations (#594)
- #581 feat: Redefine 👍🏼👎🏼 as a confirmation contract (#586)
- #584 fix: Remove `<pre>` from update-jira-ticket allowlist (#585)
- feat: Strengthen type-safety guidance
- #580 fix: Restore gradient usage with skill-local pointers (#582)
- #578 fix: Prohibit `version_message` argument in update-jira-ticket (#579)
- #555 feat: Restructure voice and format rules to enforce inline at point-of-use (#573)
- #522 feat: Support partials in skills and subagent definitions (#571)
- #553 feat: Replace /review-change with /review-branch and /review-pr (#570)
- #515 feat: Auto-retry interrupted reviewer dispatches (#566)
- #519 fix: Raise reviewer max_turns defaults (#564)
- #560 feat: Treat tickets as requests; design as if from the beginning (#562)
- #544 fix: Stop under-recommending direct implementation (#557)
- #548 feat: Add work-type emojis and breaking tag to PR descriptions (#554)
- #542 refactor: Stop duplicating work-type tiers in commit/SKILL.md (#551)
- #545 feat: Add critical-evaluation guidance to collaboration skill (#550)
- #538 feat: Extract release-notes voice into shared rules (#549)
- #540 refactor: Remove duplicated rules from shared AGENTS.md (#547)
- #536 fix: Treat menu omission as drop in /wrap-up (#541)
- #535 feat: Inline shared guidance into platform files at install time (#539)
- #524 feat: Document code+mark restriction in update-jira-ticket (#534)
- #531 feat: Delimit publishable content in merge approval prompt (#533)
- #526 feat: Make recommendation-gradient the interactive default (#532)
- #469 internal: Migrate label-map schema reference to release-kit (#530)
- ## tooling: Exclude generated files from Prettier formatting
- #527 refactor: Unify Jira-style ticket ID extraction across skills (#529)

factory-v0.2.1
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #943 docs: Remove local-only references from design docs (#944)
- fmt: Auto-format
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #818 tests: Use full timestamps in test fixtures, not bare dates (#826)
- deps: Upgrade jsdom to patch vuln in undici
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #702 refactor: Deduplicate the isRecord type guard across factory and run-core (#707)
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- deps: Upgrade dependencies
- ## tooling: Exclude generated files from Prettier formatting

kb-v0.2.0
- #881 tooling: Migrate build to nmr-compile and give mcp an entry point (#1001)
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #989 refactor: Give the store's on-disk layout a single owner (#992)
- #972 fix: Support events from a harness that exposes no session id (#981)
- #965 tooling: Fix type resolution in the published kb and run-core packages (#975)
- #853 refactor: Replace rule engine with a type-blind vault-integrity layer (#961)
- #852 refactor: Route the assertion write commands through KbAssertion (#959)
- #821 feat: Add a mutable impact rating to events (#901)
- fmt: Auto-format
- #851 feat: Add kb-retrieve-events for event recall (#872)
- #850 feat: Add kb-update-events for batch event editing (#867)
- #849 internal: Add type-blind note I/O and declared per-type record modules (#858)
- #824 fix: Scope kb-retrieve recall to the configured note set (#829)
- #818 tests: Use full timestamps in test fixtures, not bare dates (#826)
- #817 feat: Record the agent harness in captured events (#822)
- #800 fix: Require an explicit --store on every capture-event call (#806)
- #792 feat: Set the default knowledge base when creating one (#799)
- #793 feat: Add a kb set-default command for the default knowledge base (#798)
- #763 feat: Add an addressed-by/addresses relation linking problems to their responses (#787)
- #779 feat!: Designate the default KB with a top-level default_kb pointer (#786)
- #766 feat!: Adopt explicit-UTC second-precision timestamps for KB date fields (#773)
- #767 refactor: Normalize declaration ordering across the kb package (#770)
- #761 feat: Add note targeting to kb check via paths and --vs (#769)
- #748 refactor: Remove the unused immutable record-type schema flag (#765)
- #759 feat: Alphabetize the default schema's field lists and add diataxis to assertion (#760)
- #752 refactor: Consolidate duplicated kb test helpers into a shared module (#758)
- #720 feat: Add a kb create command to provision new KB stores (#755)
- #727 refactor: Redesign the record taxonomy around a stored recordType discriminant (#742)
- kb: Fix executable bit of kb script
- #718 feat: Add a config-driven kb check CLI and library export (#735)
- #724 refactor: Rename @codeassembly/kb-core to @codeassembly/kb (#726)

mcp-v0.2.1
- #881 tooling: Migrate build to nmr-compile and give mcp an entry point (#1001)
- ## tooling: Exclude generated files from Prettier formatting

run-core-v0.2.1
- #881 tooling: Migrate build to nmr-compile and give mcp an entry point (#1001)
- #965 tooling: Fix type resolution in the published kb and run-core packages (#975)
- #818 tests: Use full timestamps in test fixtures, not bare dates (#826)
- #734 refactor: Replace js-yaml with the yaml library (#743)
- deps: Upgrade all deps to latest minor version
- #702 refactor: Deduplicate the isRecord type guard across factory and run-core (#707)
- ## tooling: Exclude generated files from Prettier formatting
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Add comment discipline to agent guidance and review pipeline

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