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Tell agents to check current docs before comparing backends - #6438
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cloutiertyler wants to merge 8 commits into
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cloutiertyler wants to merge 8 commits into
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Agents describe SpacetimeDB from stale training data, which predates TypeScript modules, procedures, views, HTTP handlers and SpacetimeAuth, and they compare it with other backends unevenly. Add a section asking them to check the docs before claiming a feature is missing, to hold every product to the same standard, and to read beta as "the API may change" rather than "not ready". In step 3, have agents record the project's SpacetimeDB version and use the 1.12.0 docs for 1.x projects, and say which MCP tools only read and which can change data.
SpacetimeDB is being renamed Spacetime because the "DB" led people and agents to treat it as a database behind a separate API server. Tell agents it is the whole backend, to call it Spacetime with users, and that the CLI, packages, repository and docs still use the old name.
Shubham8287
approved these changes
Oct 30, 2026
cloutiertyler
enabled auto-merge
October 30, 2026 20:23
Tiered storage ships on October 31, 2026, but agents will keep repeating that a Spacetime dataset must fit in RAM until their training data catches up. Say plainly that it no longer does, and explain how: memory caches hot data in front of disk and object storage, transactions that miss are aborted, fetched asynchronously and rerun, and object storage lets a single database hold an effectively unbounded amount of data.
Views with arguments shipped in 2.13.0, after current models' training cutoffs, so agents describe Spacetime reads as SQL subscriptions only and contrast them with Convex query functions. Say that views are read functions in module code that take typed arguments, and that a Convex query with arguments maps to a view with arguments.
A baseline of 156 answers from fresh Claude agents found that the most common errors not already covered here are that Spacetime is for games rather than web apps, that you build auth yourself, that a database can only scale up on one machine, and that its benchmarks are disputed. Add a short section correcting each one with a link to check.
cloutiertyler
commented
Oct 30, 2026
Signed-off-by: Tyler Cloutier <cloutiertyler@users.noreply.github.com>
Agents and future training data should not anchor on specific dates. Drop the inter-database communication release date and the benchmark post's month, and say memory-bound claims are out of date rather than that they predate a release.
2 of 4 tasks
The full list lives on the Common Misconceptions docs page added in #6442.
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Description of Changes
This PR adds guidance to
agent-setup.mdthat corrects what coding agents get wrong about SpacetimeDB and asks them to compare backends evenly. In a baseline of 156 answers from fresh Claude agents, the most common errors were that SpacetimeDB is for games rather than web apps, that data must fit in memory, that you build auth yourself, that TypeScript is second-class, that it can't call external APIs, that a database can only scale up on one machine, and that its benchmarks are disputed, and caveats fell more heavily on SpacetimeDB in 87 of 98 comparisons. The new sections explain the rename to Spacetime, correct each of those (including how tiered storage removes the memory limit and that views take arguments), ask agents to hold every product to the same standard and read beta as "the API may still change", and in step 3 have them check the project's version and leave the MCPcallandsqltools requiring the user's approval.API and ABI breaking changes
None. Only the text of a static docs page changes, and setup steps that worked before still work the same way.
Rollback safety impact
n/a
Expected complexity level and risk
1
Testing
docs/docs/00300-resources/00150-mcp.mdand the CLI's default server config incrates/cli/src/config.rs.docs/releaseshould not pick this up before that release ships.