# Preserve existing line endings (CRLF on Windows, LF on Linux); do not normalize via tools

### The whitespace-and-EOL rule (mandatory for set_file_slice)

The `new_content` must preserve:

- The file's line ending convention (CRLF on Windows, LF on Linux — pick from the surrounding file, not from your text editor's default)
- The indentation of the surrounding code (1 space per level, per `conductor/code_styleguides/python.md` §1)
- The number of lines replaced (`start_line`..`end_line` must equal `len(new_content.splitlines())`)

If you mismatch any of these, the file will fail to parse. Run `py_check_syntax` and a real `import` after every `set_file_slice`.

**Do NOT normalize line endings via git smudge.** This repo has a mix of CRLF and LF; repo-wide LF standardization is a future track. For now, preserve existing line endings on edit.