The pre-commit Playbook
Engineering Standards, Caparra, DevOps Peter Somerville Engineering Standards, Caparra, DevOps Peter Somerville

The pre-commit Playbook

One of the core ideas behind DevOps is "shifting left." That means moving critical checks, testing, and feedback earlier in the software development lifecycle. Pre-Commit takes that "shift left" principle and gives it teeth. By running automated checks before code gets committed, it helps teams enforce consistency, spot bugs early, and maintain high standards. Check it out:

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A Surprising Secret About Python Linters
Python, DevOps, Engineering Standards Peter Somerville Python, DevOps, Engineering Standards Peter Somerville

A Surprising Secret About Python Linters

It sounds crazy: you run your linter, fix the issues, run it again… and suddenly it finds more issues. Wait, what?

Yes, it’s a real thing. Depending on the complexity of your code and the tools you’re using, sometimes one pass isn’t enough to get a clean bill of health. But don’t worry, there’s a simple fix: run your linters twice!

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Teach Your AI Agent to Write Python Logs Like a Pro
Artificial Intelligence, Python Peter Somerville Artificial Intelligence, Python Peter Somerville

Teach Your AI Agent to Write Python Logs Like a Pro

Last week we made the case for why logging is the DevOps superpower that gives you X-ray vision into your systems. What if you are using AI Agents to write your Python code? Just like we train junior developers to build habits that lead to better software, we need to guide our AI Agents to log their code in smart, structured, and consistent ways.

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Why Your Team Needs pre-commit
GitHub, Engineering Standards Peter Somerville GitHub, Engineering Standards Peter Somerville

Why Your Team Needs pre-commit

It’s easy to overlook pre-commit when you’re already using GitHub and have a continuous integration pipeline. Why add complexity? In fact, when used well, pre-commit can be the simplest and most effective way to eliminate bugs, style issues, and config drift before they even enter your Git history. pre-commit helps shift quality left, right into your fingertips as you write and commit code.

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Why Linters Hate Unused Imports
Python Peter Somerville Python Peter Somerville

Why Linters Hate Unused Imports

If you’ve been writing Python code for long, you’ve run into one of the many tools that want to clean up your files. And you’ve probably noticed that they all want to delete unused imports. This might seem a little nitpicky, but there are good reasons to nuke unused imports. And while it starts with clean code, the reasons don’t end there.

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Python Linter Showdown
Python, DevOps, Software Chad Rhyner Python, DevOps, Software Chad Rhyner

Python Linter Showdown

Python Linter Showdown! It’s time for a spirited comparison of four popular Python linters: black, flake8, pylint, and ruff. Each tool promises to tidy up your code, catch pesky bugs, and keep your scripts neat. Our contestants today will face off on three files containing some not-so-great Python. Get ready to witness our code-based house of horror!

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Sort It Out: How isort Makes Python Better
DevOps Peter Somerville DevOps Peter Somerville

Sort It Out: How isort Makes Python Better

When working with Python, keeping your code clean and organized is essential. You may have heard of isort, a handy tool that automatically sorts your Python imports. Keeping your import statements sorted is a simple step that is deceptively powerful, and we’ll talk about how adding isort to your Python workflows can save you hours and hours of time debugging your code. If only every part of coding was this easy!

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Intro to Linters in Python: Clean and Bug-Free Code
Peter Somerville Peter Somerville

Intro to Linters in Python: Clean and Bug-Free Code

Writing clean, error-free code is a lot easier when you have a little help. That’s where linters come in. In this post, we’ll introduce you to linters for Python, and walk through what they are, how to use them, where they came from, and why they’re so useful. We’ll also show a simple Python linting example, and cover how to integrate linters into different environments, from your local editor to CI/CD pipelines. Finally, we’ll recommend the best Python linter for beginners. Let’s get started!

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