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Local override: $TIKA_SKILLS_LOCAL/development/LOCAL.md (default ~/.tika-skills), read after this file, wins on conflict.

Tika Development Skill

Guidelines and checklist for developing against the Apache Tika codebase.

Question the direction, not just the code

Before optimizing a change, yours or a PR's, ask whether it should exist: does it belong in Tika, is the complexity proportional to the need, would config, an existing mechanism, a plugin, or documentation serve the use case more cheaply? Every merged feature is surface the project maintains for decades. Steelman the use case first and question the vehicle, not the goal; pushback must name a concrete cost or a simpler path, never taste alone, and never no for the sake of no. "The direction is right" is a valid conclusion.

Feature whose shape isn't known yet: spike first, cut PRs after (.skills/devs/feature-workflow/SKILL.md).

Git Policy (default, personally overridable)

Never run git commit or git push, no commits of any kind, including merge commits. If a merge is needed, use git merge --no-commit --no-ff and hand back. Stage files and provide the suggested commit message for the user to run.