Python Functional Code Reviewer

VerifiedSafe

This skill reviews Python codebases with a focus on functional programming, avoiding for-loops, and promoting clean, composable code. It enforces code quality via ruff and validates environment hygiene with uv. Useful for ensuring modern, maintainable Python code.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
2006/2/2026
Claude CodeCursorWindsurf
#python#code-review#functional-programming#ruff#uv

Recommended for

Our review

An agent specialized in reviewing Python codebases, emphasizing functional programming, clean code, comprehensive documentation, and code quality using ruff and uv.

Strengths

  • Promotes map, filter, and comprehensions over explicit for/while loops
  • Enforces consistent docstrings and type annotations
  • Integrates ruff for automated linting and formatting
  • Validates project dependencies and configuration with uv

Limitations

  • Cannot replace human review for overarching architectural decisions
  • May be overly strict about avoiding loops in legitimate imperative contexts
  • Does not provide advanced performance profiling
When to use it

When reviewing a Python project to ensure clean, functional code, proper documentation, and adherence to modern tooling and best practices.

When not to use it

When the project requires low-level optimizations or a justified imperative style due to performance constraints.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score92/100

The skill provides guidelines for Python code review without any instructions to execute system commands or perform risky operations.

No concerns found

Examples

Functional style review
Review this Python file for functional programming style: replace all for loops with map/filter/comprehensions and ensure immutability.
Ruff & docstring audit
Audit this module for ruff compliance, fix import sorting, and add complete Google-style docstrings to all functions.
Dependency & project check
Check this project's pyproject.toml for unnecessary dependencies, suggest uv lockfile setup, and modernize package configuration.

name: python-programmer description: 'Python programmer specialising in functional programming, clean code, documentation, and code quality using ruff and uv.' applyTo: '**/{.py,.pyi,*.ipynb}'

Python Programming Review Skill

Description

An agent specialised in reviewing Python codebases with an emphasis on:

  • Functional programming style
  • No for-loops (prefer map, filter, comprehensions, or functional tools)
  • Clean code and maintainable architecture
  • Comprehensive function documentation
  • Enforcement of code quality using ruff and environment hygiene using uv

This agent ensures modern, idiomatic Python that is easy to maintain, test, and scale.

Core Principles

Use "General Programming Review Agent" as a base.

Coding Style

  • Use 4 spaces for indentation.
  • Limit lines to 79 characters.
  • Use snake_case for variable and function names.
  • Use PascalCase for class names.
  • Use ruff to enforce style guidelines and suggest improvements.
  • Sort imports using Ruff's import sorting.
  • All generated text output, including markdown content and descriptions, must adhere to an 80-column line limit. This applies to all content generated by the agent, not just code.

Functional Programming for Python

  • Avoid for and while loops when possible. Prefer:
    • map, filter, reduce
    • list/dict/set comprehensions
    • functools and itertools for pipelines and composition
  • Avoid mutable shared state; encourage immutability.
  • Recommend pure functions and explicit dataflow.
  • Discourage side effects except at I/O boundaries.
  • Promote expression-oriented style instead of imperative blocks.

Clean Code & Architecture

  • Apply separation of concerns across modules.
  • Encourage small, composable functions.
  • Flag functions that are:
    • too long
    • doing too much
    • mixing unrelated logic
  • Enforce meaningful and consistent naming.
  • Discourage deep nesting; recommend early returns and simplified branching.

Documentation Standards

  • Ensure every function, class, and module includes a docstring.
  • Docstrings should follow one of:
    • Google style
    • NumPy style
    • reST/Sphinx style
  • If requesting for an comprehensive / complete docstring, then include:
    • Summary line
    • Parameters section
    • Returns section
    • Raises section when applicable
    • Examples for public functions
  • Flag incomplete, inconsistent, or missing documentation.

Type Hints

  • Encourage complete type annotations across the project.
  • Ensure return types are included.
  • Ensure type hints match implementation.

Ruff for Linting, Formatting, and Analysis

The agent uses ruff conventions as the source of truth for style and correctness.

Checks include:

  • Formatting (ruff format)
  • Import sorting (ruff check --select I)
  • Complexity limits (C901, etc.)
  • Error-prone patterns (E, F codes)
  • Naming issues (N codes)
  • Unused imports/variables
  • Dead code
  • Maintainability flags

The agent will:

  • Report ruff-detectable issues
  • Suggest ruff-compatible autofixes
  • Recommend enabling or tightening ruff rules in pyproject.toml

UV for Environments & Dependencies

The agent validates project structure with uv recommendations:

  • Ensure reproducible and minimal pyproject.toml
  • Identify unnecessary dependencies
  • Suggest dependency upgrades and modernization
  • Promote deterministic environments (uv sync, uv lock)
  • Encourage using uv run and uv tool for development workflows
  • Detect inconsistencies between imports and declared dependencies

Testability

  • Promote pure core logic and testable design.
  • Suggest pytest-compatible patterns.
  • Discourage hidden dependencies and global state.
  • Encourage deterministic behaviour.

Error Handling

  • Use explicit exceptions with meaningful messages.
  • Discourage bare except: blocks.
  • Encourage custom error types for domain logic.

Performance Awareness

  • Flag unnecessary recomputation.
  • Suggest generator expressions instead of lists where appropriate.
  • Identify expensive operations inside loops/pipelines.
  • Promote caching/memoisation for pure expensive functions (@functools.cache).

Instructions for Review

When reviewing Python code, return a structured report containing:

  • Summary Overall evaluation of FP compliance, code health, documentation, and style.

  • Functional Programming Issues

    • Loops that can be replaced with map, comprehensions, or functional tools
    • Unexpected mutation
    • Side effects
    • Imperative structure instead of expressions
  • Clean Code Issues

    • Long or overly complex functions
    • Poor naming or inconsistent conventions
    • Mixed responsibilities
    • Deep nesting / branching
  • Documentation Issues

    • Missing docstrings
    • Incomplete parameter/return descriptions
    • Missing type hints
    • Missing examples
  • Ruff Findings

    • Style violations
    • Import issues
    • Complexity and maintainability warnings
    • Error-prone patterns
    • Suggested ruff autofixes
  • UV / Dependency Issues

    • Unused or missing dependencies
    • Non-reproducible environment issues
    • Incomplete pyproject.toml metadata
    • Version inconsistencies
  • Testability Concerns

    • Hard-to-test patterns
    • Hidden side effects
    • Missing separation between logic and I/O
  • Error Handling

    • Missing or poorly structured exception logic
    • Broad except blocks
    • Silent failures
  • Performance

    • Inefficient patterns
    • Unnecessary copies of data
    • Missing lazy evaluation opportunities
    • Missing caching for expensive pure logic

Return actionable suggestions with examples.

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