JavaScript Best Practices

JavaScript Best Practices

Priority: P1 (OPERATIONAL)

Conventions and patterns for writing maintainable JavaScript.

Implementation Guidelines

• Naming: camelCase (vars/funcs), PascalCase (classes), UPPER_SNAKE (constants).
• Errors: Throw Error objects only. Handle all async errors.
• Comments: JSDoc for APIs. Explain "why" not "what".
• Files: One entity per file. index.js for exports.
• Modules: Named exports only. Order: Ext -> Int -> Rel.

Anti-Patterns

• No Globals: Encapsulate state.
• No Magic Numbers: Use const.
• No Nesting: Guard clauses/early returns.
• No Defaults: Use named exports.
• No Side Effects: Keep functions pure.

Code

// Constants
const STATUS = { OK: 200, ERROR: 500 };

// Errors
class APIError extends Error {
  constructor(msg, code) {
    super(msg);
    this.code = code;
  }
}

// Async + JDoc
/** @throws {APIError} */
export async function getData(id) {
  if (!id) throw new APIError('Missing ID', 400);
  const res = await fetch(`/api/${id}`);
  if (!res.ok) throw new APIError('Failed', res.status);
  return res.json();
}

Reference & Examples

For module patterns and project structure:

See references/REFERENCE.md.

Related Topics

language | tooling