AGENTS.md additions

AGENTS.md

@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ Prefer a fine-grained commit history. Commits should be as small as possible
 while still being meaningful and self-contained.
 
 - **Every commit must compile and pass all tests.** No "WIP" commits, no
-  commits that leave the tree broken and rely on a follow-up to fix it.
+  commits that leave the tree broken and rely on a follow-up to fix it. A
+  `fixup!` is not such a follow-up; see "Iterate with `fixup!` commits" for
+  what one may leave broken until it is folded in.
 - **Every commit must be `gofumpt`-formatted.** Run `just format` before
   committing.
 - **Every commit must be lint-clean.** Run `just lint` before committing —
@@ -134,6 +136,32 @@ target, make the change, `git commit --fixup=<target>`, then
 branch. The fixup stays a separate, reviewable commit; only its position
 changes.
 
+**A fixup may leave commits before it broken until it is folded in.** If a
+`fixup!` on an early commit deletes something that a later commit still uses,
+the later commit doesn't build until its own `fixup!`, right behind it, catches
+up; the same goes for lint. That is expected. The rules above about every
+commit compiling, testing and linting clean describe the history *after*
+autosquash, and I fold fixups in soon after reviewing them. Never amend a
+commit directly, or edit the commits between two fixups, to keep every commit
+of the un-squashed history green. The reviewable fixup is worth more than a
+green intermediate state. Verify at each fixup instead, since the tree there
+is what the folded-in history will have at that point, and say in the handoff
+which commits stay broken until which fixup.
+
+**After a mid-stack fixup, check every branch tip above it, not just the stack
+tip.** A fixup that deletes or renames something rewrites every commit replayed
+above it, and a commit further up can hide the damage at the tip. A helper
+whose last caller the fixup deleted is flagged as unused by `just lint` at the
+tip of its own PR, but a later PR that calls it again makes the stack tip lint
+clean. Each PR is reviewed and merged on its own, so each PR branch tip has to
+be green on its own. After the replay, run `just build`, `just unit-test` and
+`just lint` at each branch tip from the insertion point up. If the fixup deleted
+or renamed a symbol, also build every replayed commit, for example with
+`git -c rebase.autosquash=false rebase -x 'go build ./...' <insertion point>`;
+unchanged commits are fast-forwarded, so their hashes stay, and the commits a
+fixup is expected to leave broken stop it, so `git rebase --continue` past
+those.
+
 If the changes don't map cleanly onto existing commits — say they cut
 across several of them, or restructure something at a different layer
 than any existing commit naturally owns — stop and ask the user how to