project-guidelines
A set of best practices for JavaScript projects
A written guide to JavaScript project best practices covering Git workflows, testing, documentation, code style, and team standards to keep codebases consistent and maintainable.
This repository is a written guide to best practices for JavaScript software projects, collected and maintained by Elsewhen, a software development company. It addresses the problem of inconsistency across teams and projects — when everyone on a team follows different habits for things like branching, commit messages, testing, and code style, codebases become hard to maintain and hand off.
The guide covers the full lifecycle of a JavaScript project: how to use Git effectively (using feature branches rather than committing directly to main, writing clear commit messages, using pull requests for code review), how to document your work, how to manage dependencies consistently, how to structure files and folders, how to write and run tests, and how to design and document APIs. Each recommendation comes with a short explanation of why the practice matters, not just what to do.
You would use this as a reference when setting up a new JavaScript project with a team, or when onboarding new developers and wanting a shared standard everyone can point to. It is not executable code — it is a human-readable document with practical advice. The guidelines are available in multiple languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Portuguese.
Where it fits
- Set up a shared coding standard when starting a new JavaScript project with a team.
- Onboard new developers by pointing them to a single reference document for expected practices.
- Establish consistent Git workflows, commit message formats, and code review processes across projects.
- Document API design and testing conventions so all team members follow the same patterns.