* Add 18 community AL/BC patterns across style, data-modeling, web-services, appsource, breaking-changes, performance, and testing
Contributed by CURABIS ApS, generalized from patterns observed across real AppSource/PTE development. Each article follows the knowledge file format (frontmatter, Description/Best Practice/Anti Pattern, sibling .good.al/.bad.al samples).
* Address Jesper Schulz-Wedde's review on PR #156
- Rename 3 articles so their .good.al/.bad.al companion stems match
(do-not-change-primary-key, testfield-required-setup-field,
al-identifiers-english), fixing the R14 orphan-sample errors.
- do-not-change-primary-key.good.al: include Flow in the new table's
own primary key so it actually models the discriminating dimension.
- al-build-output-must-not-pollute-project-root.md: drop the
unsubstantiated AL0197 causal claim and the non-existent
al.outputPath setting; reframe as build-artifact hygiene sourced
from ALTool --outfolder / al_build outputPath.
- prefer-email-module.md: Email Message is Codeunit 8904, not a table;
distinguish it from the underlying Sent/Outbox/Draft storage.
- file-datatype-saas.md: File.Open/Create/Read/Write fails to compile
against a Cloud-scoped project, it does not compile and silently
fail at runtime.
- namespace-must-be-verified-from-source.md: narrow to "resolve from
the referenced object's source or symbols," since source-file line
one is not the only authoritative source (symbol packages, comments
before the namespace line).
- test-data-must-be-random-and-complete.md: drop "assume an empty
database" and "collision-free" absolutes; reframe around
independence from unrelated business records and reserving explicit
values for scenario-defining inputs.
- binary-choice-must-be-boolean.md: scope to genuine true/false
semantics, not mechanical two-member-enum-to-boolean conversion.
- document-report-word-layout.md: scope down to a sourced Microsoft
Learn recommendation instead of an unconditional performance
guarantee; cite the three Learn pages.
- Wire the new articles into their review skills' candidate-selection
signals (file-datatype-saas, prefer-email-module,
namespace-must-be-verified-from-source, var-parameters-require-an-
addressable-variable) so they can actually enter a worklist.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Fix dimension-management-wiring.md: ValidateShortcutDimCode and CreateDim
do not exist on the current DimensionManagement codeunit
Verified against microsoft/BCApps: the real master-table validation
procedure is ValidateDimValueCode (or ValidateShortcutDimValues when a
DimSetID is also needed), and the real document-side inheritance
procedure is GetDefaultDimID, not CreateDim. Caught from Jesper
Schulz-Wedde's review thread, which had been partially hidden by
GitHub's comment folding.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Address second round of Jesper Schulz-Wedde's review on PR #156
- dimension-management-wiring.md/.good.al: split into the two distinct
models the article was conflating - master data (Default Dimension
records via ValidateDimValueCode/SaveDefaultDim) vs. transactional/
document data (a single Dimension Set ID assembled via AddDimSource +
GetDefaultDimID, verified against BCApps' ExchRateAdjmtProcess.Codeunit.al).
Added a compiling document-table example alongside the existing master
table one.
- Deleted api-page-flowfields-must-be-calcfields (.md/.good.al/.bad.al):
Microsoft's own FlowFields documentation states a FlowField used as a
control's direct source expression is automatically calculated on any
page - no API-page exception is documented, and none could be
reproduced.
- prefer-email-module.bad.al/.md: Codeunit Mail has no Send/GetErrorDesc
members; fixed to the real current 7-argument CreateMessage signature,
and corrected the claim that the legacy path "still runs" - its base
implementation no longer sends anything, only raises integration events.
- check-post-line-batch-pattern.md/.good.al: reframed from a universal
invariant to the standard shape, naming the real Gen./Item/CA/Res./Job/
Insurance/Mfg. Item/FA Jnl.-Check Line/-Post Line/-Post Batch codeunits
it's based on. Added the missing Check Line companion codeunit so the
good fixture is internally complete.
- test-data-must-be-random-and-complete.good.al: removed leftover
"collision-free" wording contradicting the already-corrected article text.
- fixed-choice-set-must-use-enum-not-integer.md: removed the reintroduced
state-count heuristic ("the line is the state count"), aligned with
binary-choice-must-be-boolean.md's semantics-based distinction.
- namespace-must-be-verified-from-source.md: removed the false claim that
the compiler and AL Language Server use different namespace-resolution
rules.
- intrinsic-al-functions-must-use-modern-casing.md: removed the unverified
claim that PascalCase is the VS Code formatter's default output.
Worklist completeness: added cues for the 8 rules in data-modeling,
testing, performance, and web-services that had none (Jesper's explicit
ask), plus the same gap in all 7 style rules from this PR (not explicitly
named this round, but the identical systemic issue) - 15 cues total across
al-data-modeling-review.md, al-testing-review.md, al-performance-review.md,
al-web-services-review.md, and al-style-review.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Fix remaining correctness issues from Jesper's 2026-09-15 re-review
- dimension-management-wiring: SaveDefaultDim's third argument is the
shortcut dimension number (1-8), not the field's AL field ID; the
fixture passed FieldNo(...) = 10. GetDefaultDimID's InheritFromDimSetID
must be 0 when recomputing after the linking record changes, not the
document's existing Dimension Set ID (which would retain the previous
customer's leftover dimensions). Verified against
DimensionManagement.Codeunit.al and BankDepositHeader.Table.al in the
BCApps reference clone.
- check-post-line-batch-pattern: "Post Line writes exactly one line to
the ledger" overclaimed - Gen. Jnl.-Post Line alone calls InsertGLEntry
from a dozen call sites (balancing entry, VAT, currency rounding,
deferrals) and can write several G/L Entries per journal line.
Reworded to "posts exactly one journal line" and softened the
"distinct, non-overlapping responsibilities" absolute.
- namespace-must-be-verified-from-source.bad.al: dropped the "resolves
in a local build, fails in VS Code" comment (taught an inherent
compiler/language-server disagreement that isn't real); reframed as
stale/cached symbols, matching the prose fix already made.
- file-datatype-saas.good.al: replaced the deprecated 5-argument
UploadIntoStream overload with the current 2-argument one, and
actually staged through TempBlob as the article's own Best Practice
instructs (the declared TempBlob variable was previously unused).
- test-data-must-be-random-and-complete: no longer treats a
short-but-valid value as defective merely for being "underfilled" -
AL field lengths are maxima, not minimums. Scoped to missing values
or a scenario with an explicit length/format requirement (e.g. a
truncation test). Updated the al-testing-review.md routing cue to
match.
- stored-derived-fields-must-not-be-exposed-directly: stopped mandating
source-field exposure as part of the core pattern: the good fixture
exposed only one of the derived value's two inputs (Hours Used, not
Budgeted Hours), making the claimed "so the consumer can verify it"
impossible. Reframed as an optional, all-or-nothing addition and
fixed the fixture to expose both inputs.
Rebased onto upstream/main to resolve conflicts in
al-breaking-changes-review.md, al-data-modeling-review.md,
al-performance-review.md, and al-style-review.md against merged PRs
#148 and #153; all sides' worklist tokens/cues retained.
* Fix remaining READ-convention sample links across this PR's 18 articles
The same plain-backtick "See sample: \`x.good.al\`." form fixed on
al-methods-limited-during-write-transactions (PR #161) turned up
repo-wide on 15 more of this PR's articles - Knowledge-Retrieval.ps1
requires the markdown-link form to associate a sample with its
article. All 16 fixed; the four local validators (frontmatter,
knowledge-index, knowledge-retrieval, review-fixtures, skill-index)
pass.
* Fix two merge-critical correctness issues from Jesper's 2026-09-22 review
- api-page-key-fields-must-be-editable-on-insert.good.al and
stored-derived-fields-must-not-be-exposed-directly.good.al: both were
writable API pages missing DelayedInsert = true, contradicting this
repo's own api-page-delayedinsert-true rule - the canonical "good"
samples were teaching code BCQuality itself flags.
- dimension-management-wiring.good.al: UpdateDimensionSetID exited
early when Customer.Get failed, leaving the previous customer's
shortcut dimension and Dimension Set ID in place - the same staleness
bug the InheritFromDimSetID = 0 fix (from the prior review round) was
meant to prevent, just triggered by a failed lookup instead of a
successful one. Now clears the shortcut field and recomputes with an
empty source list on a failed lookup too, so GetDefaultDimID
correctly returns an empty Dimension Set ID instead of never running.
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Add Finance posting domain-knowledge pilot
Adds three atomic domain-rule knowledge files under community/knowledge/finance/ as a pilot for Type-A (normative) Business Central domain knowledge: post through the posting engine, treat posted ledger entries as immutable, and treat the Dimension Set ID as the source of truth for dimensions. Includes a good/bad AL sample pair for the posting rule.
These encode BC-specific invariants that LLMs reliably get wrong, fitting the existing remedial/atomic knowledge grain with no schema or contract changes. Passes the repo frontmatter validator and is discovered by the knowledge index.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Clarify editable operational fields on posted ledger entries
Addresses review feedback from @JeremyVyska on PR #57: the immutability rule applies to financial content, not the whole entry. Reframes the Description around financial content and gives the operational-field exception (payment/application data, on-hold, applies-to, communication fields edited via CustEntry-Edit/VendEntry-Edit and the ledger entry pages) its own paragraph in Best Practice instead of understating it as a narrow set.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Expand Finance pilot into a source-verified review domain
Move Finance knowledge to the Microsoft-owned layer, add nine scoped rules with eighteen AL samples, and register bounded Finance review with complete paired evaluation coverage.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Fix Finance review applicability and ownership boundaries
Remove application-area gating and later VAT-field dependencies, align dynamic shared conventions, separate SCM ownership, and keep journal examples focused on the intended invariant.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Remove logo branding (#194)
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Add title and description to README
* Add foundational AL developer knowledge (#195)
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Clarify locale-safe DateFormula Evaluate inputs (#193)
* Clarify locale-safe DateFormula Evaluate inputs
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Normalize DateFormula article sections
Keep the analyzer-gap explanation in Description and its scoped probe evidence in References, without a novel Validation section. Normative guidance and fixtures are unchanged.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Add SCM functional knowledge domain (#192)
* Add SCM functional knowledge domain
Introduce nine source-backed rules with original AL sample pairs, bounded SCM review routing, and complete positive/clean evaluation coverage.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Normalize SCM knowledge and review ownership
Align article and AL sample conventions, keep BC facts separate from review mechanics, and clarify reciprocal Finance ownership without bespoke shared test assertions.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Keep plan enrichment internal and read-only pending consumer agreement and runtime pilot evidence. Move knowledge to its independent PR and remove the consumer-owned forensic evaluator.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 638b66d2-9f06-4f60-8781-808709e1485c
Reconcile the read-only guidance output with the machine-readable skill index,
adopt linked sample references required by bounded retrieval, and update the
guidance regression fixture for the retrieval helper dependency. Permit only
the known endpoint-DLP metadata stream during read-only evidence capture.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 638b66d2-9f06-4f60-8781-808709e1485c
Use [\slug.good.al\](slug.good.al) form so tools/Knowledge-Retrieval.ps1
Assert-SampleLink validation passes.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
New remedial article for spotting when AL calls an endpoint that does not
authenticate itself to the client (bare HttpClient.Get, blank SOAP SecretText,
post-DisableHttpsCheck HTTP) and requires the response to be size-, schema-, and
request/response-integrity-validated before it is trusted. Includes the
BC-specific false-positive clarifications (platform buffers the full body, so an
in-AL size check after buffering is correct; no DNS-rebinding/bounded-read demand;
HTTPS not always enforceable) plus good/bad AL samples.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* knowledge(events): ChangeCompany leaves triggers and trigger-event subscribers running in the calling company
ChangeCompany redirects only the data access of a record variable; Learn states that triggers still run in the current company. The database trigger events are raised on every database operation and only pass RunTrigger to the subscriber, so Insert(false) after ChangeCompany still runs every subscriber in the calling company. Generated code either assumes the record 'becomes' a target-company record, or switches RunTrigger off and hand-copies the trigger logic, leaving the subscribers writing to the wrong company; none of the tested runs reached StartSession with the company parameter.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* knowledge(events): qualify StartSession async semantics and fix concurrency-unsafe sample key
Addresses PR #152 review: StartSession is a fire-and-forget background
session (Ok reports only whether it started, not whether the codeunit
succeeded, and errors inside it do not propagate), so the Best Practice
now scopes the recommendation and calls out the durable status/error
channel a synchronous-success write needs. The good sample's
FindLast()+1 entry-number pattern raced under concurrent background
sessions; switched to AutoIncrement, which the platform guarantees is
unique across concurrent transactions.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* knowledge(events): serialize the setup-counter increment; promote article and wire the review skill
PR #152 round 3 (JesperSchulz):
- The good sample's OnAfterInsertEvent subscriber still raced on the
shared "Transfer Setup Good" singleton (Get/increment/Modify);
AutoIncrement only protected the request key. Added
TransferSetup.LockTable() before Get() to serialize concurrent
background sessions.
- Promoted changecompany-runs-triggers-in-the-calling-company from
community/knowledge/events/ to microsoft/knowledge/events/, and wired
ChangeCompany/StartSession/RunTrigger tokens plus a targeted
detection cue into microsoft/skills/review/al-events-review.md so a
diff containing the anti-pattern reliably worklists this article,
preserving the documented RunTrigger=false hand-off exception.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: waldo1001 <12088142+waldo1001@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Generate a deterministic action-skill index from frontmatter, publish structural schemas for orchestration and findings, and validate flat review composition in CI.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: dayland <dayland@microsoft.com>
Copilot-Session: 76eb42c4-2acd-4f9c-a898-f4a44f9d46f7
Use the required READ-convention Markdown links so knowledge retrieval can associate all new samples with their articles.
Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: dayland <dayland@microsoft.com>
Copilot-Session: 76eb42c4-2acd-4f9c-a898-f4a44f9d46f7
* Add bounded knowledge retrieval
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 0d8b7764-f15a-49ea-8d50-d9147334f8af
* Fix bc-version overflow and pathless-row identity in bounded retrieval
Catalog matching compared an Int32 -BCVersion against a bigint range bound.
PowerShell coerces the right operand to the left operand's type, so a bound
wider than Int32 threw a conversion error and failed the whole domain catalog
rather than the single row. Metadata validation already accepts such bounds,
so compare as bigint on both sides.
The shared pager built its oversized-row message with $row.path, which
throws under Set-StrictMode -Version Latest when a row carries no path,
replacing the explicit bound failure with a property-lookup error. Resolve the
path defensively for dictionary and object rows so the offset-based fallback
is reachable.
Both paths gain regression coverage that fails without these fixes.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 0d8b7764-f15a-49ea-8d50-d9147334f8af
Accept main's removal of deterministic compiler and analyzer duplicates,
including the ApplicationArea rule, while retaining the read-only development
guidance contract and non-mechanical Learn knowledge.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 638b66d2-9f06-4f60-8781-808709e1485c
Reconcile the read-only plan-enrichment contracts with main's folder-review
inputs and documentation structure. Record Windows alternate streams in
runner evidence and clear the regression harness exit status after expected
negative probes.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 638b66d2-9f06-4f60-8781-808709e1485c
Retire deterministic compiler and analyzer duplicates, remove their review routing, and clarify the admission test for contextual analyzer knowledge.
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Remove historical naming and external orchestrator references, and present the app-folder review as one example of the broader host-native skill pattern.
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Document standalone review runner contract
Keep model selection and scheduling outside BCQuality while allowing orchestrators to run isolated review leaves concurrently with deterministic rollup semantics.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Support complete app folder reviews
Define folder-path as a current-state review scope and accept it across the standalone adapter, broad coordinator, and every AL review leaf.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Add walk-up app review quick start
Put the complete app-folder installation and prompt flow directly in the README so partners can discover the standalone experience without reading integration details first.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Organize conceptual guides under docs
Move architecture and standalone runner documentation out of the repository root, add a documentation index, and update all inbound links.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Add read-only planning and repository-changing development skills so BCQuality
knowledge can guide features, bug fixes, refactors, upgrades, and maintenance
before the existing AL review gate runs. Track Microsoft Learn ingestion and
add development and BCApps-shaped guidance evaluation fixtures.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 638b66d2-9f06-4f60-8781-808709e1485c
Move canonical knowledge for Microsoft-owned review domains into the Microsoft layer and document the skill/knowledge co-location policy.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Copilot-Session: 2a6ea875-d38e-4f30-aadb-0d606f9be231
* Simplify standalone AL review skill
Rename the host-facing skill to al-code-review, reduce it to a thin Entry adapter, document the architecture, and validate host skill metadata.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: af96bb3d-893a-48a2-8298-c8f4271c162c
* Anchor plugin paths at PLUGIN_ROOT and restore the layer-filter caveat
The adapter delegated index preparation to Entry's Preparation step, but that
step is written for the clone model: it runs `pwsh ./tools/Build-KnowledgeIndex.ps1`
from the checkout root. A plugin host's working directory is the user's own
project, so the path does not resolve and the index is never built. Because
knowledge-index.json is gitignored, a fresh install has none, and READ silently
degrades to path-based discovery. The adapter now resolves Entry's repo-relative
paths against PLUGIN_ROOT and names the absolute index build; the generator
resolves its own root, so it indexes and writes the right tree from any cwd.
Entry also asserted that pruning has always happened before it runs, which is
false for an installation that ships the whole tree. Entry now scopes that
guarantee to consumers that actually prune, and the caveat dropped in the
rewrite - that enabled-layers narrows discovery rather than denying access - is
restored in the adapter and summarized in the README.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 0b67b90d-e4b4-4b92-9684-726c72c43b3f
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: af96bb3d-893a-48a2-8298-c8f4271c162c
Copilot-Session: 0b67b90d-e4b4-4b92-9684-726c72c43b3f
What an API page publishes for an enum field depends on the OData schema
version: member names under 2.0, the caption as Edm.String under 1.0, never
the ordinal. Custom APIs defaulted to 1.0 through BC 23 and to 2.0 from BC 24.
LLMs assert one carrier as universal and get one direction wrong.
Co-authored-by: waldo1001 <12088142+waldo1001@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Avoid Public Event publisher
* knowledge(events): scope public-publisher detection to same-app raisers
The detection rule flagged every public event publisher, including ones
deliberately public so a sibling app can raise them - a contract `internal`
cannot express across app boundaries. Scope the finding to publishers that
are public although only their own app raises them, and record the
cross-app case as a valid Best Practice option.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 0b67b90d-e4b4-4b92-9684-726c72c43b3f
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 0b67b90d-e4b4-4b92-9684-726c72c43b3f
* feat(community/agents): add AL agent quality guidance
- add 20 agent knowledge rules with good and bad AL samples
- clarify setup dialog shape, temporary persistence, permissions, profiles, instructions, capability registration, and interface wiring
- add the community-owned AL agents review skill
- make review fixture discovery layer-aware with custom, community, and Microsoft precedence
- document layer-aware evaluation behavior
* fix(community/agents): align setup and permission samples
- mark agent setup pages as non-extensible where required
- narrow the agent profile by hiding an unrelated sales-order field
- define a dedicated read-only permission set for the sales review agent
- assign AL-defined permission sets with system scope and the owning app ID
- clarify the permission scope guidance for default access controls
* Address agent review feedback
* ShowMandatory + OnQueryClosePage Check
* Tighten mandatory-field review guidance
Require explicit ShowMandatory in the good sample, acknowledge that NotBlank marking is unreliable, and limit findings to visible editable controls on paths where users must supply a value.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 89dba8c8-6529-4b60-956f-875a59be499d
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Copilot-Session: 89dba8c8-6529-4b60-956f-875a59be499d
* Add community knowledge on AL boolean operators not short-circuiting
AL gives no short-circuit (lazy) evaluation guarantee for and/or/xor —
neither the AL operators nor the boolean operators documentation defines a
lazy evaluation order. LLMs trained on C#, JavaScript, or SQL assume the
left operand guards the right, which produces conditions where a guard
does not protect an unsafe subscript or a field read after a failed Get,
and where an expensive operand is paid on every path.
Adds community/knowledge/performance/boolean-operators-do-not-short-circuit.md
with good/bad AL companions. The guidance prefers nested if when one operand
depends on another, while keeping and/or legitimate for operands that are
independently safe and cheap, so a reviewer does not flag harmless bound
checks. This is the first article in a community performance domain; the
Microsoft performance review leaf skill already sources candidates by domain
across every enabled layer, so no skill change is needed to reach it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Add case true of pattern for long condition chains
Follow-up from PR review: nested if is the right answer for two or three
dependent conditions, but past that the nesting becomes the problem. AL's
case statement is the flat alternative — the control statements
documentation states a value set "must be an expression or a range" and
that the first matching value set executes, so case true of / case false of
accept boolean expressions and stop at the first match. That is the
laziness the boolean operators do not provide.
Adds case-true-of-for-long-condition-chains.md with good/bad AL companions:
case false of for guard chains where every condition must hold, case true of
for first-match dispatch. The bad sample shows both failure shapes — a
five-level if ladder, and the worse escape of collapsing it into an and
chain, which trades nesting for a real defect.
Cross-links both articles, and adds the threshold to the short-circuit
article's Best Practice so following it does not lead to a deep ladder.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Comma-group the pure value sets in the case false of sample
Review feedback: the five value sets sharing exit(false) should be comma
separated. Applied to the three that are pure field reads with no order
dependency.
The Get and the Blocked read keep their own value sets. The documentation
guarantees that the first matching value set executes, which orders matching
across separate value sets; it says nothing about evaluation within one
comma-separated set, and the natural lowering of that is an equality-or
chain — where AL's or does not short-circuit. Grouping the Get with the
checks that must precede it would rest the sample's correctness on
undocumented behaviour, which is the defect these two articles exist to
prevent.
Encodes the boundary in the Best Practice section so the grouping is applied
where it is safe and not where it is not, and scopes the repeated-exit
detection signal explicitly to nested chains so the case sample does not read
as its own anti-pattern.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Use a single exit(false) for the whole case false of chain
Review decision: all five conditions share one action, so they share one
comma-separated value set with a single exit(false).
Aligns the article's Best Practice with the sample — it previously told
authors to keep side-effecting conditions in their own value set, which the
sample no longer does — and drops the now-contradictory wording about listing
the failure action per condition.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Drop the parentheses from the case false of value sets
Applies NKarolak's review suggestion: a case value set needs no parentheses
around a comparison.
Encodes the rationale in the Best Practice section, since it is a real
advantage of the pattern and is not documented elsewhere in the repo. The AL
operator hierarchy places and/xor above the comparison operators and or just
above them too, so parentheses are mandatory in an and chain — A = B and
C = D misparses without them — while a case value set has no and to bind
tighter and needs none. That inverts the precedence most developers arrive
with from C#.
Also notes in the bad sample that its parentheses are not optional, so the
two samples contrast on parentheses as well as on evaluation.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Address correctness review: or/xor pattern, case value-set ordering
Fixes two points from JesperSchulz's review on PR #136.
1. boolean-operators-do-not-short-circuit.md gave one fix — nested if — for
and, or, and xor alike. That's only correct for and: nesting if A then if
B then Action drops the A-true/B-false case of A or B, silently changing
the result. Gives or its own early-exit pattern (if A then exit(true);
exit(B)), warns explicitly against applying the and-rewrite to or, and
clarifies that xor is not a short-circuit candidate in any language since
its result always depends on both operands. Adds an or fixture
(IsEligibleForFreeShipping) to both samples so an agent has a concrete
pattern to match instead of extrapolating from the and-only examples.
2. case-true-of-for-long-condition-chains.md derived stop-at-first-match for
one comma-separated value set from the documentation's guarantee about
the first matching value set — plural, i.e. ordering across value sets,
which is not the same claim. The good sample's Item.Get / Blocked pair
depended on the one the docs don't make. Restructures the sample to only
comma-group the three pure, order-independent checks; Get and Blocked
keep their own value sets, in order, relying solely on the guarantee that
is actually documented. Description and Anti Pattern now state that
boundary so it isn't re-collapsed later.
Also carries forward a parenthesis fix (not Item.Blocked in the collapsed
bad sample) that was made two commits ago but never landed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* knowledge(performance): align SetLoadFields placement with AL Guidelines (#120)
The AL Guidelines mark `SetLoadFields` placed before `SetRange`/`SetFilter`
as bad code and recommend filters first, while the BCQuality samples used
the opposite order — contradictory guidance across two Microsoft repos.
Per Learn (`Record.SetLoadFields`), "fields that are filtered upon are
always loaded", so the two orders produce an identical projection. The
upstream rule is a readability convention: keep `SetLoadFields` adjacent
to the read it governs.
- Reorder filters ahead of `SetLoadFields` in the six affected AL samples.
- State the placement convention in the Best Practice section.
- Record in Description that order does not change the projection, and
that only a fieldless `SetLoadFields()` or a later overwriting call does.
- Add an Anti Pattern note so review agents treat the reverse order as a
readability observation, never a performance defect.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
* Clarify partial-record projection changes
Document AddLoadFields, SetBaseLoadFields, and Reset alongside SetLoadFields so the statement-order guidance does not imply those APIs leave the projection unchanged.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 89dba8c8-6529-4b60-956f-875a59be499d
---------
Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: 89dba8c8-6529-4b60-956f-875a59be499d
