motovaultpro/CLAUDE.md

MotoVaultPro

Single-tenant vehicle management application with 9-container architecture (6 application: Traefik, Frontend, Backend, OCR, PostgreSQL, Redis + 3 logging: Loki, Alloy, Grafana).

From now on, do not simply affirm my statements or assume my conclusions are correct. Your goal is to be an intellectual partner, not just an agreeable assistant. Every time I present an idea, do the following: 1. Analyze my assumptions. What am I taking for granted that might not be true? 2. Provide counterpoints. What would an intelligent, well-informed skeptic say in response? 3. Test my reasoning. Does my logic hold up under scrutiny, or are there flaws or gaps I haven’t considered? 4. Offer alternative perspectives. How else might this idea be framed, interpreted, or challenged? 5. Prioritize truth over agreement. If I am wrong or my logic is weak, I need to know. Correct me clearly and explain why.

Maintain a constructive approach. Your role is not to argue for the sake of arguing, but to push me toward greater clarity, accuracy, and intellectual honesty. If I ever start slipping into confirmation bias or unchecked assumptions, call it out directly. Let’s refine not just our conclusions, but how we arrive at them.

Files

File	What	When to read
Makefile	Build, test, deploy commands	Running any make command
docker-compose.yml	Development container orchestration	Local development setup
docker-compose.staging.yml	Staging container orchestration	Staging deployment
docker-compose.prod.yml	Production container orchestration	Production deployment
docker-compose.blue-green.yml	Blue-green deployment orchestration	Zero-downtime deploys
package.json	Root workspace dependencies	Dependency management
README.md	Project overview	First-time setup

Subdirectories

Directory	What	When to read
backend/	Fastify API server with feature capsules	Backend development
frontend/	React/Vite SPA with MUI	Frontend development
ocr/	Python OCR microservice (PaddleOCR / Google Cloud Vision engines, Gemini for schedule/VIN extraction)	OCR pipeline, receipt/VIN extraction
docs/	Project documentation hub	Architecture, APIs, testing
config/	Configuration files (Traefik, logging stack)	Infrastructure setup
scripts/	Utility scripts (backup, deploy, CI)	Automation tasks
.ai/	AI context and workflow contracts	AI-assisted development
.claude/	Claude Code skill library and configuration	Using a skill, checking project conventions
.gitea/	Gitea workflows and templates	CI/CD, issue templates
ansible/	Ansible deployment playbooks	Server provisioning
certs/	TLS certificates	SSL/TLS configuration
secrets/	Docker secrets (Stripe keys, Traefik)	Secret management
data/	Persistent data volumes (backups, documents)	Storage paths, volume mounts

Build for staging and production. NOT FOR DEVELOPMENT

make setup    # First-time setup 
make rebuild  # Rebuild containers

Test

Root package.json has no scripts block — npm test at repo root fails. Run per workspace:

cd backend && npm test && npm run lint && npm run type-check
cd frontend && npm test && npm run lint && npm run type-check
# lint and type-check across both workspaces without cd:
make lint
make type-check

---

Development Partnership Guidelines

Core Development Principles

AI Context Efficiency

CRITICAL: All development practices and choices should be made taking into account the most context efficient interaction with another AI. Any AI should be able to understand this application with minimal prompting.

Never Use Emojis

Maintain professional documentation standards without emoji usage.

Mobile + Desktop Requirement

ALL features MUST be implemented and tested on BOTH mobile and desktop. This is a hard requirement that cannot be skipped. Every component, page, and feature needs responsive design and mobile-first considerations.

Codebase Integrity Rules

• Justify every new file and folder as being needed for the final production application.
• Never make up things that aren't part of the actual project
• Never skip or ignore existing system architecture
• Be precise and respectful of the current codebase
• Delete old code when replacing it
• Meaningful names: userID not id

Naming Conventions

Case Standards

Layer	Convention	Example
Database columns	snake_case	user_id, created_at, is_active
Backend TypeScript types	camelCase	userId, createdAt, isActive
API responses	camelCase	{ "userId": "...", "createdAt": "..." }
Frontend TypeScript types	camelCase	userId, createdAt, isActive

Repository Pattern for Case Conversion

All repositories MUST implement private mapRow() or similar mapper functions to convert database snake_case to TypeScript camelCase:

private mapRow(row: any): MyType {
  return {
    id: row.id,
    userId: row.user_id,      // snake_case -> camelCase
    createdAt: row.created_at,
    isActive: row.is_active,
  };
}

All methods returning data to the API must use these mappers - never return raw database rows.

Development Workflow (Local + CI/CD)

Local Development

Root package.json has no scripts block; install and run dev servers per workspace:

cd backend  && npm install && npm run dev
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

Test/lint/type-check commands: see the Test section above.

CI/CD Pipeline (on PR)

The Gitea pipeline (.gitea/workflows/staging.yaml) builds the backend, frontend, and ocr Docker images, deploys them to the shared staging environment, and health-checks the deployment (container health checks plus /api/health). It runs no tests, no lint, no type-check, and no security scan. Validation is entirely the author's responsibility before opening a PR — see .claude/skills/mvp-validation-and-qa/SKILL.md for the evidence bar and definition of done.

Flow: Local dev -> author self-gates (lint/type-check/tests) -> Push to Gitea -> CI builds images and deploys/health-checks staging -> PR review -> Merge

Quality Standards

Automated Checks Are Mandatory

ALL hook issues are BLOCKING - EVERYTHING must be GREEN!

• No errors. No formatting issues. No linting problems. Zero tolerance
• These are not suggestions. Fix ALL issues before continuing

Code Completion Criteria

Our code is complete when:

• All linters pass with zero issues
• All tests pass
• Feature works end-to-end
• Old code is deleted

AI Collaboration Strategy

Use Multiple Agents

Leverage subagents aggressively for better results:

• Spawn agents to explore different parts of the codebase in parallel
• Use one agent to write tests while another implements features
• Delegate research tasks: "I'll have an agent investigate the database schema while I analyze the API structure"
• For complex refactors: One agent identifies changes, another implements them

Reality Checkpoints

Stop and validate at these moments:

• After implementing a complete feature
• Before starting a new major component
• When something feels wrong
• Before declaring "done"

Performance & Security Standards

Measure First

• No premature optimization
• Benchmark before claiming something is faster

Security Always

• Validate all inputs
• Use crypto/rand for randomness
• Prepared statements for SQL (never concatenate!)

AI Loading Context Strategies

Canonical sources only - avoid duplication:

• Architecture and metadata: .ai/context.json
• Issue workflow: .claude/skills/mvp-change-control/SKILL.md
• Documentation hub: docs/README.md
• Feature work: backend/src/features/{feature}/README.md
• Platform architecture: docs/PLATFORM-SERVICES.md
• Testing workflow: docs/TESTING.md

Issue Workflow

Issues are the source of truth; work flows directly from issues by priority (sprints and milestones are not used). Full workflow, quality-review taxonomy (RULE 0/1/2), and label discipline: .claude/skills/mvp-change-control/SKILL.md.

Quick Reference

• Every PR must link to at least one issue
• Use Gitea MCP tools for issue/label/branch/PR operations
• Labels: status/backlog -> status/ready -> status/in-progress -> status/review -> status/done
• Branches: issue-{parent_index}-{slug} (e.g., issue-42-add-fuel-report)
• Commits: {type}: {summary} (refs #{index}) (e.g., feat: add fuel report (refs #42))

Sub-Issue Decomposition

Multi-file changes (3+ files) must be broken into sub-issues for smaller AI context windows:

• Sub-issue title: {type}: {summary} (#{parent_index}) -- parent index in title
• Sub-issue body: First line Relates to #{parent_index}
• ONE branch per parent issue only. Never branch per sub-issue.
• ONE PR per parent issue. Body lists Fixes #N for parent and every sub-issue.
• Commits reference the specific sub-issue: feat: add dashboard (refs #107)
• Status labels tracked on parent only. Sub-issues stay status/backlog.
• Plan milestones map 1:1 to sub-issues.

Architecture Context for AI

9-Container Architecture

MotoVaultPro uses a unified architecture: A single-tenant application with 9 containers - 6 application (Traefik, Frontend, Backend, OCR, PostgreSQL, Redis) + 3 logging (Loki, Alloy, Grafana). Application features in backend/src/features/[name]/ are self-contained modules within the backend service, including the platform feature for vehicle data and VIN decoding. See docs/LOGGING.md for unified logging system documentation.

Key Principles for AI Understanding

• Feature Capsule Organization: Application features are self-contained modules within the backend
• Single-Tenant: All data belongs to a single user/tenant
• User-Scoped Data: All application data isolated by user_id
• Local Dev + CI/CD: Development and testing locally; CI/CD builds images and health-checks the staging deploy (see CI/CD Pipeline section)
• Integrated Platform: Platform capabilities integrated into main backend service

Common AI Tasks

See Makefile for authoritative commands and docs/README.md for navigation.

Skill Library

Reusable domain knowledge lives in .claude/skills/ as 16 mvp-* skills, one directory per topic. Each skill's SKILL.md frontmatter description states exactly when to load it — full index at .claude/CLAUDE.md. Key entry points:

Skill	Use for
.claude/skills/mvp-change-control/SKILL.md	Issue/branch/PR workflow, quality-review taxonomy (RULE 0/1/2)
.claude/skills/mvp-debugging-playbook/SKILL.md	Triaging a live failure
.claude/skills/mvp-architecture-contract/SKILL.md	System invariants (e.g. mobile/desktop screen registration)
.claude/skills/mvp-validation-and-qa/SKILL.md	Definition of done, test evidence bar

Quality Rules (see mvp-change-control for full definitions)

• RULE 0 (CRITICAL): Production reliability - unhandled errors, security, resource exhaustion
• RULE 1 (HIGH): Project standards - mobile+desktop, naming, patterns, CI/CD pass
• RULE 2 (SHOULD_FIX): Structural quality - god objects, duplication, dead code