distill: best practices from 2026-04-19 cross-project run

Adds 3 new topic files (ai-parallel-agents, api-integration,
python-patterns) and extends 21 existing topic files with new gotchas
and patterns surfaced from memory across tracked projects. Index
updated accordingly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

milestones.md

@@ -41,6 +41,20 @@ Good reflections capture:
 - Most avoidable waste and what would have prevented it
 - Concrete checklist items for future similar work
 
+## Always Push Partial Work, Even on Test Failure
+
+When dispatching agent tasks that commit work on exit, push the branch even when tests fail. Example failure mode: a task with 88/88 of its own tests passing but an unrelated dependency failure in the full suite had its work discarded because `finalize` was gated on "tests passed".
+
+Partial work is almost always more valuable than nothing — the exit code and metadata still signal failure, and downstream users can cherry-pick or inspect the branch.
+
+**Rule:** finalize/commit/push actions should not be gated on success. Only higher-level decisions (branch labels, PR creation, auto-merge eligibility) should key off test outcomes.
+
+## Write Milestone Verify Scripts Manually, Not as Agent Deliverables
+
+When agents complete tasks in a decomposed milestone, each agent naturally writes a verify script that covers only its own slice. If one of those slice-scoped scripts is labelled the milestone verify script, "milestone verified" really means "one slice verified" — the cross-slice integration is unchecked.
+
+**Rule:** always write the milestone-level verify script manually, or dispatch it as a separate task whose input is the full milestone scope. Never fold milestone verification into one of the feature-implementation tasks.
+
 ## Evaluate Content Placement Before Building
 
 Before creating a new document, system, or catalog, discuss where it belongs conceptually. Different content types have different lifecycles: