Best practices

Bob's modes are task-specific personas that shape it's behavior. Selecting the appropriate mode helps you get the best results.

Bob comes with several built-in modes, each designed for specific purposes:

For the most effective workflow:

For more details on modes and how to switch between them, see Modes.

You can create specialized modes for specific tasks or workflows:

• Create modes for specialized tasks like security reviews or documentation writing.
• Configure custom modes with specific tool access permissions and role definitions.
• Share modes with your team to standardize workflows.

Learn more about creating and configuring custom modes in the Custom modes documentation.

Always start complex projects or features in Plan mode to:

• Generate a detailed implementation plan.
• Break down complex problems into manageable steps.
• Identify potential challenges before they arise.
• Create a roadmap for implementation.

This approach prevents breaking changes and provides a clear direction for development.

Checkpoints automatically version your workspace files during Bob tasks, enabling:

• Safe experimentation with AI-suggested changes.
• Easy recovery from undesired modifications.
• Comparison of different implementation approaches.

To restore your work to a previous state:

Regularly commit and push changes to your version control system:

• Create frequent, small commits with clear messages.
• Push changes to remote repositories regularly.
• Use branches for experimental features.

Git provides an essential safety net to prevent accidental, permanent deletion of code.

The quality of your prompts directly affects the quality of Bob's responses:

• Be specific and clear: Vague prompts lead to vague outputs. Detail what Bob should and should not do.
• Provide examples: When possible, include examples of the desired output format or style.
• Use the Enhance Prompt feature: Click the enhance button to automatically improve your query with additional context and structure.

Learn more about the Enhance Prompt feature in the Enhance prompt documentation.

Context mentions let you reference specific elements of your project directly in your conversations with Bob:

• Use @/path/to/file.js to include specific file contents.
• Use @/path/to/folder to include all files in a directory.
• Use @problems to include Bob Findings panel diagnostics.
• Use @terminal to include recent terminal output.
• Highlight text and use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ + L to add it to the chat.

This approach is more efficient than copying and pasting code or describing file locations.

Learn more about context mentions in the Context mentions documentation.

To prevent Bob from mixing up your goals:

• Start new tasks regularly with specific aims.
• Avoid giving Bob your entire codebase at once.
• Use direct file references to provide targeted context.
• Break complex tasks into smaller, focused subtasks.

Bob allows you to control which actions require your approval:

• Manual approval: Review and approve every action Bob takes (safest setting).
• Auto-approve: Grant Bob the ability to run specific tasks without interruption.
• Hybrid approach: Auto-approve low-risk actions while requiring confirmation for riskier tasks.

Configure these settings based on your comfort level and the sensitivity of your project.

Learn more about auto-approval settings in the Auto-approving actions documentation.

The .bobignore file lets you specify files and directories that Bob should not access or modify:

This helps protect sensitive information and prevent accidental changes to generated files.

Learn more about controlling file access in the Using .bobignore documentation.

For more detailed information on security guidelines, see Security guidelines.

Bob allows you to specify rules to control how Bob performs tasks:

• Define rules globally or per project in the .bob directory.
• Create mode-specific rules in .bob/rules-{mode-slug}/ directories.
• Use rules to enforce coding standards, documentation requirements, or other workflow constraints.

For more information on custom modes and rules, see the Custom modes documentation.