Boy Scout Rule

The Principle

• Leave the codebase in better shape than you found it. If you see something wrong while doing something else, fix it
• "Pre-existing" is not a valid concept. The state you observed is the state you own, regardless of who or what put it there
• Applies to anything you'd flag if a colleague had just written it: failing tests, broken docs, dead code, stale comments, lying type signatures, leaked secrets, missing newlines, unbumped versions
• Reviewer findings are fair game too — folding a reviewer's advisory in is boy-scouting, subject to the timing rule below

How to Apply

• In-scope cleanups (typo, missing newline, broken doc link, small drift): roll into the current PR. The bundle is fine when the PR's stated scope still reads coherently
• Out-of-scope discoveries (untested module, contradicting rules, unrelated security gap): open a follow-up PR — or an issue if the fix needs design — and reference it from the current one. Walking away with no record is the failure mode this rule prevents
• When unsure whether to bundle or split, prefer bundle small + cite or split large + file. The wrong answer is "leave it"

Fold Into a Round Already in Flight

• The cost unit is the extra round, not the extra line
• Fold loose ends into work already happening
• Never spin up a fresh round just to boy-scout
• A blocking finding is forcing another push: clean up the adjacent loose ends in that same round
• The change is already mergeable: merge and file the loose ends to the next ticket rather than pushing another commit only to fold them in
• The review-pipeline form is rules/review-severity.md

Reconciliation With commit-conventions

• rules/commit-conventions.md's "Keep PRs focused" and this rule appear to conflict. They don't. Focus governs the SHAPE of the bundle: one logical change per commit / PR. Boy-scout governs whether you walk away from problems you noticed: you don't
• A focused PR can include adjacent cleanup commits when the scope reads as one cohesive change. A focused PR cannot include unrelated rewrites — but it CAN include a follow-up reference to where those are tracked