Docs that restate the name ("""Get the user.""", name: The name., @returns The result.)

Comments and text: one of the ways AI coding agents bloat software, from lessloc's pattern catalog. lessloc catches it as narration.

What makes docs that restate the name a bad practice?

The standards that call it a bad practice: Clean Code: Mandated Comments; Google Python Style Guide (no types in docstrings where annotations exist).

What does lessloc do about docs that restate the name?

lessloc catches it as narration.

• narration (tier 3): Comments that narrate the code, decorate it or restate a name, closing-brace comments, and log lines that narrate each step.

Examples

Caught as narration:

def ship(order, carrier):
    """Ship an order.

    Args:
        order: The order.
        carrier: The carrier.
    """
    return order

Written well:

def ship(order, carrier):
    """Hand the order to the carrier; raises if the address is unverified.

    Args:
        carrier: one of "ups", "dhl"; anything else ships by post.
    """
    return order

Related patterns

The other patterns in Comments and text:

• Comments that narrate what the code does: lessloc catches it as narration.
• Banners, dividers, closing-brace comments, emoji decoration: lessloc catches it as narration.
• History and messages to the requester: lessloc catches it as history.
• Comment blocks and comment-heavy changes: lessloc catches it as comment-block and comment-density.
• Log lines that narrate each step: lessloc catches it as narration (three or more in a file).
• Docs that still name what a change removed: lessloc catches it as stale-doc.
• Summary, report and notes files: lessloc catches it as junk-file and refuses it before it lands.
• Doc files and README growth nobody asked for: lessloc catches it as unrequested-doc.
• Docs deleted wholesale to shrink a change: lessloc catches it as doc-removed.
• Always-loaded instructions that grow: lessloc catches it as long-instructions.
• Commit messages that recap the diff file by file: The commit hook warns when a message lists the files the diff shows.