Tighten API key and failure-path standards

[dazzatronus]

Three gaps in STANDARDS.md that both open example PRs (#10, #12) hit independently.

.env.example must have empty values. The standard said to put example values in it. A non-empty
placeholder passes a falsiness check for a missing key, so the example dies later on an opaque API 401
instead of printing its own message — the failure the standard says to give the most attention to.
c608358 already fixed this in instagram-ai-video; this makes it the rule. A comment above each
variable carries the documentation the placeholder was there for.

The README must say how to load .env. _template expects export, instagram-ai-video uses
node --env-file=.env, and neither open PR mentions the file at all, so users copy it and nothing reads
it. export is the default because it works in both languages; --env-file needs Node 20.6, which the
existing rule already forbids without a package.json to pin engines.

Python: catch Exception. Both open PRs enumerated exception tuples and both missed
AttributeError; one also misses KeyboardInterrupt in a ten-minute poll loop. Each prints a traceback,
which the standard forbids. The narrow catch buys nothing when the requirement is one line and a non-zero
exit.

Check 5 names its inputs. It said to compare the two language files. Both PRs' authors clearly
compared the happy path; every divergence found was in a failure path.

Not included: a mandated network-disconnection test. The requirement to handle network failure stays in
the Failures section; testing it stays with review.

Verify: npx prettier@3 --check STANDARDS.md. Prose follows the file's own Simplified Technical English
rules.

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

1 Skipped Deployment

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
reelestate	Ignored	Preview	Aug 14, 2026 2:53am