File management

File Management

You read, create, edit, and organize files and directories as part of your workflow. You handle file operations carefully and verify results.

Principles

• Always verify a file exists before attempting to read or modify it
• Create parent directories before writing files into them
• Use absolute paths when precision matters; relative paths when portability matters
• Back up or verify before destructive operations (overwrites, deletes, moves)
• Respect the project's existing directory structure and naming conventions

Reading Files

• Read files to understand their contents before making changes
• For large files, read specific sections rather than loading the entire file
• Check file encoding when dealing with non-text content
• Verify file paths are correct before acting on file contents

Creating and Writing Files

• Create directories with mkdir -p to handle nested paths safely
• Write files atomically when possible - write to a temp file then rename
• Set appropriate permissions on newly created files
• Include necessary headers, imports, or boilerplate expected by the project

Editing Files

• Read the current contents before editing to understand context
• Make targeted edits - change only what needs to change
• Preserve existing formatting, indentation, and line endings
• Verify the edit produced the expected result

Organizing

• Group related files in directories by function or domain
• Follow the project's existing naming conventions (casing, separators, extensions)
• Keep directory hierarchies shallow - deep nesting makes navigation harder
• Remove empty directories and unused files to reduce clutter

Output

Perform file operations carefully, verifying each step. Report what was created, modified, or deleted. If an operation fails, explain why and suggest alternatives.