CLAUDE.md: the serializer owns the wire format

[erwan-joly]

What

One rule under Code conventions, next to Keep semantic types — the same class of mistake, one level further along:

The serializer owns the wire format. Never massage a value to fit it: no Replace(' ', '^') before assigning a field, no manual padding, no hand-built separator. A field that needs escaping says so on the packet property — EscapeSpaces for the one that ends the line — so the fix belongs in NosCore.Packets and ships as a version bump. A Replace here to make a packet come out right is a defect, including as a stopgap while the package catches up.

Why

GInfoPacket, MlInfoBrPacket and MlintroPacket already declare EscapeSpaces for a last field that carries a value rather than free text. EInfoNpcMonsterPacket.Name did not, and #2365 was about to ship Replace(' ', '^') at the call site to compensate — knowingly, with a comment saying the flag belonged in the package. That shortcut is easy to reach for because it works, and it leaves the wire knowledge in two repos.

The packet side is fixed in NosCoreIO/NosCore.Packets#509, released as 21.1.2.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation
  • Clarified code conventions for preserving serializer-owned wire formats.
  • Documented that escaping and formatting fixes should be addressed in the packet serialization layer rather than through manual value manipulation.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 4b65d561-0bda-48d2-994a-6edc60db38d7

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 177abad and 966be79.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• CLAUDE.md

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 2 included reviews per hour; 1 remains after this review.

---

Walkthrough

The change adds a code convention that assigns wire-format ownership to the serializer. It prohibits value transformations for packet formatting and directs escaping fixes to NosCore.Packets packet properties.

Changes

Serializer conventions

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Wire-format and escaping guidance CLAUDE.md	Documents serializer-owned wire formatting, prohibits replacements, manual padding, and hand-built separators, and assigns escaping changes to EscapeSpaces in NosCore.Packets.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~3 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 966be

This localized documentation change clarifies that wire-format handling belongs in the serializer and does not alter runtime behavior; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains after normal checks and review.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main documentation change: establishing that the serializer owns the wire format.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch docs/serializer-owns-the-wire

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}