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Best Practices

Addy OsmaniCommunityCreated by web-quality-skillsDistributed by Addy Osmani

  • Skill
  • Guidelines
  • Software development
  • MIT
  • No issues found
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From the author

Apply modern web development best practices for security, compatibility, and code quality. Use when asked to "apply best practices", "security audit", "modernize code", "code quality review", or "check for vulnerabilities".
— the description by web-quality-skills

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a structured approach to auditing and improving web applications based on established web development standards. It offers an evidence-led workflow for performing audits, alongside specific technical guidance for implementing security headers, managing dependencies, ensuring browser compatibility, and maintaining clean, semantic code. The content emphasizes defensive programming techniques, such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and Trusted Types, and provides actionable patterns for common web development tasks.

What it does

  • Provides a checklist for security, compatibility, and code quality audits.
  • Outlines patterns for implementing security headers like HSTS and CSP.
  • Demonstrates correct usage of HTML5 features and semantic elements.
  • Offers guidance on memory management and efficient event handling.
  • Explains how to handle browser compatibility through feature detection and polyfills.
  • Details methods for secure third-party script integration using Subresource Integrity.

When to use it

  • When performing a code quality or security review of a web project.
  • When modernizing legacy web codebases.
  • When troubleshooting browser-specific compatibility issues.
  • When configuring security headers or policies for a web application.
  • When auditing third-party dependencies and script loading patterns.

Advantages

  • Provides clear, evidence-based patterns for common web development challenges.
  • Includes specific, actionable code examples for security and performance.
  • Offers a structured audit checklist for consistent evaluation.
  • Focuses on modern standards and defensive coding practices.

Usage examples

“Apply best practices to my current web project.”
The agent will initiate an audit workflow, checking for security headers, valid HTML, and modern coding patterns, providing a list of recommended improvements.
“How can I improve the security of my site's third-party scripts?”
The agent will explain how to implement Subresource Integrity (SRI) hashes and provide instructions on pinning dependencies to prevent supply-chain attacks.
“Check my code for vulnerabilities.”
The agent will review the provided code or page state against security guidelines, identifying potential issues like missing CSP headers or insecure script loading.
“How do I modernize my legacy browser detection logic?”
The agent will provide examples of replacing brittle user-agent sniffing with modern feature detection techniques like 'in window' checks and CSS @supports rules.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/addyosmani/best-practices/download

  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip best-practices.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by web-quality-skills

Best practices

Modern web development standards based on Lighthouse best practices audits. Covers security, browser compatibility, and code quality patterns.

Evidence-led audit workflow

When a rendered page is available:

  1. Run a live Lighthouse Best Practices audit when that capability is available; with Chrome DevTools MCP, use lighthouse_audit. Use navigation mode for a normal page load or snapshot mode when the current state must be preserved.

  2. Inspect the listed console and network failures and fetch individual details only when they support a finding.

  3. Supplement runtime evidence with dependency, header, configuration, and source inspection; Lighthouse is not a complete security assessment.

  4. Fix the implicated code, re-run the same audit, and keep security findings separate from style preferences.

If live tools are unavailable, use the Lighthouse CLI plus focused dependency and header checks. Never report a high Lighthouse score as proof that the application is secure.

Security

Read the security reference when security is in scope or a live audit surfaces a related failure. It covers HTTPS/HSTS, CSP and Trusted Types, Subresource Integrity, headers, dependencies, sanitization, and cookies.

At minimum:

  • Use HTTPS without mixed content. Add HSTS only after confirming every relevant subdomain supports HTTPS.

  • Treat a strict CSP as defense in depth. Prefer nonces or hashes and test with report-only before enforcement.

  • Sanitize untrusted HTML and protect DOM XSS sinks. Prefer text APIs when markup is not required.

  • Pin and review third-party code. Use SRI where the delivery model supports it and keep dependencies patched.

  • Verify response headers at runtime. Source configuration alone does not prove what the deployed page sends.

Browser compatibility

Doctype declaration
<!-- ❌ Missing or invalid doctype -->
<HTML>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">

<!-- ✅ HTML5 doctype -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
Character encoding
<!-- ❌ Missing or late charset -->
<html>
<head>
  <title>Page</title>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>

<!-- ✅ Charset as first element in head -->
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Page</title>
</head>
Viewport meta tag
<!-- ❌ Missing viewport -->
<head>
  <title>Page</title>
</head>

<!-- ✅ Responsive viewport -->
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Page</title>
</head>
Feature detection
// ❌ Browser detection (brittle)
if (navigator.userAgent.includes('Chrome')) {
  // Chrome-specific code
}

// ✅ Feature detection
if ('IntersectionObserver' in window) {
  // Use IntersectionObserver
} else {
  // Fallback
}

// ✅ Using @supports in CSS
@supports (display: grid) {
  .container {
    display: grid;
  }
}

@supports not (display: grid) {
  .container {
    display: flex;
  }
}
Polyfills (when needed)

Prefer bundling polyfills at build time (Babel/SWC + core-js, or @vitejs/plugin-legacy) targeted by your supported-browsers list. This eliminates the runtime check entirely and avoids shipping polyfill bytes to modern browsers.

If you must load a polyfill at runtime, append a script element — never use document.write (it blocks the parser and is broken in async/deferred contexts):

<script>
  if (!('fetch' in window)) {
    const s = document.createElement('script');
    s.src = '/polyfills/fetch.js';
    s.defer = true;
    document.head.appendChild(s);
  }
</script>

Never load polyfills from a third-party CDN you don't control. The polyfill.io service was compromised in mid-2024 in a supply-chain attack and used to serve malware to ~100k sites. Self-host, or use a vetted mirror (e.g. Cloudflare's cdnjs polyfill build) — and pin the version with Subresource Integrity.

Deprecated APIs

Avoid these
// ❌ document.write (blocks parsing)
document.write('<script src="..."></script>');

// ✅ Dynamic script loading
const script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = '...';
document.head.appendChild(script);

// ❌ Synchronous XHR (blocks main thread)
const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('GET', url, false); // false = synchronous

// ✅ Async fetch
const response = await fetch(url);

// ❌ Application Cache (deprecated)
<html manifest="cache.manifest">

// ✅ Service Workers
if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
  navigator.serviceWorker.register('/sw.js');
}
Event listener passive
// ❌ Non-passive touch/wheel (may block scrolling)
element.addEventListener('touchstart', handler);
element.addEventListener('wheel', handler);

// ✅ Passive listeners (allows smooth scrolling)
element.addEventListener('touchstart', handler, { passive: true });
element.addEventListener('wheel', handler, { passive: true });

// ✅ If you need preventDefault, be explicit
element.addEventListener('touchstart', handler, { passive: false });

Console & errors

No console errors
// ❌ Errors in production
console.log('Debug info'); // Remove in production
throw new Error('Unhandled'); // Catch all errors

// ✅ Proper error handling
try {
  riskyOperation();
} catch (error) {
  // Log to error tracking service
  errorTracker.captureException(error);
  // Show user-friendly message
  showErrorMessage('Something went wrong. Please try again.');
}
Error boundaries (React)
class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
  state = { hasError: false };
  
  static getDerivedStateFromError(error) {
    return { hasError: true };
  }
  
  componentDidCatch(error, info) {
    errorTracker.captureException(error, { extra: info });
  }
  
  render() {
    if (this.state.hasError) {
      return <FallbackUI />;
    }
    return this.props.children;
  }
}

// Usage
<ErrorBoundary>
  <App />
</ErrorBoundary>
Global error handler
// Catch unhandled errors
window.addEventListener('error', (event) => {
  errorTracker.captureException(event.error);
});

// Catch unhandled promise rejections
window.addEventListener('unhandledrejection', (event) => {
  errorTracker.captureException(event.reason);
});

Source maps

Production configuration
// ❌ Source maps exposed in production
// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  devtool: 'source-map', // Exposes source code
};

// ✅ Hidden source maps (uploaded to error tracker)
module.exports = {
  devtool: 'hidden-source-map',
};

// ✅ Or no source maps in production
module.exports = {
  devtool: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' ? false : 'source-map',
};

Strip sourcesContent from production maps when uploading to your error tracker. By default, bundlers embed the full original source inside the .map file — anyone who obtains the map (including via a misconfigured upload step) gets your unminified code. Configure your bundler to omit sourcesContent, or use a Sentry/Bugsnag CLI flag that does so when uploading.

For Vite, prefer sourcemap: 'hidden' over 'true' so the //# sourceMappingURL= comment isn't emitted into the bundle.

Performance best practices

Avoid blocking patterns
// ❌ Blocking script
<script src="heavy-library.js"></script>

// ✅ Deferred script
<script defer src="heavy-library.js"></script>

// ❌ Blocking CSS import
@import url('other-styles.css');

// ✅ Link tags (parallel loading)
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="other-styles.css">
Efficient event handlers
// ❌ Handler on every element
items.forEach(item => {
  item.addEventListener('click', handleClick);
});

// ✅ Event delegation
container.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
  if (e.target.matches('.item')) {
    handleClick(e);
  }
});
Memory management
// ❌ Memory leak (never removed)
const handler = () => { /* ... */ };
window.addEventListener('resize', handler);

// ✅ Cleanup when done
const handler = () => { /* ... */ };
window.addEventListener('resize', handler);

// Later, when component unmounts:
window.removeEventListener('resize', handler);

// ✅ Using AbortController
const controller = new AbortController();
window.addEventListener('resize', handler, { signal: controller.signal });

// Cleanup:
controller.abort();

Code quality

Valid HTML
<!-- ❌ Invalid HTML -->
<div id="header">
<div id="header"> <!-- Duplicate ID -->

<ul>
  <div>Item</div> <!-- Invalid child -->
</ul>

<a href="/"><button>Click</button></a> <!-- Invalid nesting -->

<!-- ✅ Valid HTML -->
<header id="site-header">
</header>

<ul>
  <li>Item</li>
</ul>

<a href="/" class="button">Click</a>
Semantic HTML
<!-- ❌ Non-semantic -->
<div class="header">
  <div class="nav">
    <div class="nav-item">Home</div>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="main">
  <div class="article">
    <div class="title">Headline</div>
  </div>
</div>

<!-- ✅ Semantic HTML5 -->
<header>
  <nav>
    <a href="/">Home</a>
  </nav>
</header>
<main>
  <article>
    <h1>Headline</h1>
  </article>
</main>
Image aspect ratios
<!-- ❌ Distorted images -->
<img src="photo.jpg" width="300" height="100">
<!-- If actual ratio is 4:3, this squishes the image -->

<!-- ✅ Preserve aspect ratio -->
<img src="photo.jpg" width="300" height="225">
<!-- Actual 4:3 dimensions -->

<!-- ✅ CSS object-fit for flexibility -->
<img src="photo.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px; object-fit: cover;">

Permissions & privacy

Request permissions properly
// ❌ Request on page load (bad UX, often denied)
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(success, error);

// ✅ Request in context, after user action
findNearbyButton.addEventListener('click', async () => {
  // Explain why you need it
  if (await showPermissionExplanation()) {
    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(success, error);
  }
});
Permissions policy
<!-- Restrict powerful features -->
<meta http-equiv="Permissions-Policy" 
      content="geolocation=(), camera=(), microphone=()">

<!-- Or allow for specific origins -->
<meta http-equiv="Permissions-Policy" 
      content="geolocation=(self 'https://maps.example.com')">

Audit checklist

Security (critical)

  • [ ] HTTPS enabled, no mixed content

  • [ ] No vulnerable dependencies (npm audit)

  • [ ] CSP headers configured (with frame-ancestors, base-uri, form-action)

  • [ ] require-trusted-types-for 'script' enforced (or report-only during rollout)

  • [ ] Third-party <script>/<link rel="stylesheet"> pinned with SRI hashes

  • [ ] Security headers present (HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy)

  • [ ] No exposed source maps (and sourcesContent stripped from uploaded ones)

Compatibility

  • [ ] Valid HTML5 doctype

  • [ ] Charset declared first in head

  • [ ] Viewport meta tag present

  • [ ] No deprecated APIs used

  • [ ] Passive event listeners for scroll/touch

Code quality

  • [ ] No console errors

  • [ ] Valid HTML (no duplicate IDs)

  • [ ] Semantic HTML elements used

  • [ ] Proper error handling

  • [ ] Memory cleanup in components

UX

  • [ ] No intrusive interstitials

  • [ ] Permission requests in context

  • [ ] Clear error messages

  • [ ] Appropriate image aspect ratios

Tools

ToolPurpose
npm auditDependency vulnerabilities
SecurityHeaders.comHeader analysis
W3C ValidatorHTML validation
Live Lighthouse audit (Chrome DevTools MCP: lighthouse_audit)Rendered Best Practices checks for agents
Lighthouse CLIBest Practices audit fallback
ObservatorySecurity scan

References

Files

LICENSE

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Addy Osmani

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Created by
web-quality-skills
Publisher
Addy Osmani (Community)
Distributed by
Addy Osmani
Source
addyosmani/web-quality-skills · skills/best-practices · commit afa8da9
Licence
MIT License (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by web-quality-skills or Addy Osmani.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download best-practices.zip