Methodologygeneric

hygiene

Use when making code changes to ensure they pass VS Code's hygiene checks. Covers the pre-commit hook, unicode restrictions, string quoting rules, copyright headers, indentation, formatting, ESLint, and stylelint. Run the hygiene check before declaring work complete.

microsoft/vscode

View source

Install

npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/vscode --skill hygiene

Use with your agent

Install the hygiene skill, then use it as build context. Run: npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/vscode --skill hygiene. Then read the installed skill.md and follow its guidance to build or refactor my project.

Hygiene Checks

VS Code runs a hygiene check as a git pre-commit hook. Commits will be rejected if hygiene fails.

Running the hygiene check

Always run the pre-commit hygiene check before declaring work complete. This catches issues that would block a commit.

To run the hygiene check on your staged files:

npm run precommit

This executes node --experimental-strip-types build/hygiene.ts, which scans only staged files (from git diff --cached).

To check specific files directly (without staging them first):

node --experimental-strip-types build/hygiene.ts path/to/file.ts

What it checks

The hygiene linter scans staged files for issues including (but not limited to):

Unicode characters: Non-ASCII characters (em-dashes, curly quotes, emoji, etc.) are rejected. Use ASCII equivalents in comments and code. Suppress with // allow-any-unicode-next-line or // allow-any-unicode-comment-file.
Double-quoted strings: Only use "double quotes" for externalized (localized) strings. Use 'single quotes' everywhere else.
Copyright headers: All files must include the Microsoft copyright header.
Indentation: Tabs only, no spaces for indentation.
Formatting: TypeScript files must match the formatter output (run Format Document to fix).
ESLint: TypeScript files are linted with ESLint.
Stylelint: CSS files are linted with stylelint.