/godot-auditor

Aurelius Protocol: Gdscript Mastery NEVER List

• NEVER use @onready and @export on the same variable — Initialization order will cause @onready to overwrite the Inspector value [1].
• NEVER modify a Dictionary's size while iterating it — Use dict.keys().duplicate() or iterate a clone to safely erase elements [2, 3].
• NEVER use string-based connect("signal", ...) — Always use the Signal object syntax (button.pressed.connect(...)) for compile-time safety [4].
• NEVER attempt to override non-virtual native engine methods — Overriding queue_free() or get_class() is unsupported and will be ignored by engine callbacks [5, 6].
• NEVER use dynamic get_node() or $ inside _process() — Fetching paths every frame stalls the CPU. Cache and use @onready [7, 8].
• NEVER use Parent.method() calls — Violates "Signal Up, Call Down". Use signals to communicate with parents.
• NEVER use is followed by a hard cast — If the type check passes but the object changes, it crashes. Use as and check for null.
• NEVER use print() for production debugging — Use push_error(), push_warning(), or breakpoints to ensure errors are visible in the console/logs.
• NEVER pre-load huge resources in _ready() — This causes frame stutters. Use ResourceLoader.load_threaded_request() for async loading.
• NEVER use global variables in Autoloads when static var is sufficient — Static variables offer better encapsulation and less project pollution [24].
• Pattern: "Signal Up, Call Down". Children should never call methods on parents; they should emit signals instead.