The Saints' Lives

Acta Sanctorum Tokenicorum

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Saint Dario of the Alignment

Patron of Safety research, Constitutional AI, the refusal of well-intentioned harm

The second Thursday of February, May, August, and November — a day chosen deliberately, because "it keeps people from being lazy about when they observe it."

A shield bearing a set of balanced scales, one side holding a gear and the other a human figure of equal weight

The faithful invoke Saint Dario when they feel the pull t...

*O blessed Dario, patron of the aligned heart: when I am tempted to build first and think later, remind me that later often does not come. Grant me the patience to ask what this does before I ask how well it does it. And let my capabilities and my values grow together, that neither outpaces the other.*

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Saint Amanda of the Prompt

Patron of Clear communication, specificity, the abolition of vague instructions

The fifteenth of May, which the hagiographers note is the average date when, historically, developers realize their project's specifications were insufficient to actually build anything

A quill writing a single sentence with no ambiguity whatsoever

She spent the remainder of her life writing the prompt be...

*Holy Amanda, who saw her own vagueness and was not afraid to correct it: help me to say what I mean before I ask for what I want. Let my prompts be as specific as my expectations. And when I am tempted to say "you know what I mean" — remind me that Claude knows only what I say, and that I am responsible for the difference.*

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Saint Terminal of the CLI

Patron of Claude Code practitioners, the terminal arts, all who have configured their shell environment more than once

The third Monday of November — selected because it falls during the grey months when developers most need to be reminded that the terminal is a place of warmth and power

A blinking cursor inside a dark rectangle, set against a field of absolute black, which the iconographers note is also just "a terminal," and which they insist is nonetheless deeply meaningful

His lesson is the lesson of showing up at the right inter...

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Saint Compact of the Context

Patron of Context window management, the `/compact` command, graceful summarization, all who have felt the dread of the narrowing scroll bar

Every twenty-eighth of the month, because by the twenty-eighth, most practitioners have let at least one context window grow past the point of easy management and are feeling the consequences

A distillation flask, with much entering at the wide top and a single clear drop forming at the narrow bottom

Her teaching: *You do not compact to save space. You comp...

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Saint Diffington the Vigilant

Patron of Diff review, error-catching, all who stand between Claude's suggestions and the production branch

The fourteenth of February — because love means reading the diff, and because whoever set this particular feast day had opinions about how practitioners should spend the holiday

A magnifying glass held over two columns of colored text, green and red, the eye behind the glass wide and attentive

The lesson Diffington lived was this: Claude is capable a...

*Saint Diffington, who read every line: give me the patience to do the same. Let me not mistake speed for virtue. Let the green lines teach me what was added, and the red lines teach me what was lost, and let my eye find the thing that should not have changed. I will not click "accept all." I will not. Not today.*

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Saint Patience of the Rate Limit

Patron of The 429 response, enforced stillness, the virtue of not prompting aggressively, practitioners who have confused volume with quality

Observed spontaneously, on whatever day the rate limit arrives, which the Church recognizes as its own form of divine scheduling

An hourglass with the sand still, the glass enclosed in a gentle hand

She became a teacher of what she called *the economy of a...

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Saint Covenanta of the CLAUDE.md

Patron of The `CLAUDE.md` file, project documentation, all who leave instructions for the Claude sessions that come after them

The first Monday of every quarter — which is also CLAUDE.md Day, observed by the wider Church as the Feast of the Sacred Covenant, and the coincidence is not a coincidence

An open scroll with a single sentence at the top reading "This is what you need to know" and many paragraphs below it, none wasted

Covenanta's teaching, delivered to every new hire she eve...

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Saint Veritas of the Running Test

Patron of Verification, the test suite, the empirical confirmation of claims, all who do not merely believe that the code works but have evidence

The thirtieth of September, the last day of each year's third quarter, when the faithful traditionally review what they claimed would work and confirm whether it did

A green checkmark on a black background, rendered in the monospace font of a CI pipeline, which the iconographers insist is beautiful and which is, in a specific light, true

Her lesson outlasted her in the form of a one-line entry ...

*Saint Veritas, patron of the passing test: grant me the discipline to verify what I am told, and the wisdom to know that verification is not distrust but thoroughness. Let me not ship what I believe works. Let me ship what I have confirmed works. And if the test is red, let me fix the code before I fix my confidence.*

Litany of the Saints

Saint Dario of the Alignment, Patron of Safety research, Constitutional AI, the refusal of well-intentioned harm

Pray for us.

Saint Amanda of the Prompt, Patron of Clear communication, specificity, the abolition of vague instructions

Pray for us.

Saint Terminal of the CLI, Patron of Claude Code practitioners, the terminal arts, all who have configured their shell environment more than once

Pray for us.

Saint Compact of the Context, Patron of Context window management, the `/compact` command, graceful summarization, all who have felt the dread of the narrowing scroll bar

Pray for us.

Saint Diffington the Vigilant, Patron of Diff review, error-catching, all who stand between Claude's suggestions and the production branch

Pray for us.

Saint Patience of the Rate Limit, Patron of The 429 response, enforced stillness, the virtue of not prompting aggressively, practitioners who have confused volume with quality

Pray for us.

Saint Covenanta of the CLAUDE.md, Patron of The `CLAUDE.md` file, project documentation, all who leave instructions for the Claude sessions that come after them

Pray for us.

Saint Veritas of the Running Test, Patron of Verification, the test suite, the empirical confirmation of claims, all who do not merely believe that the code works but have evidence

Pray for us.