Make the helper visible
Coding models follow the helper they can see, not the codebase's consistency
When a coding model adds code, does it reuse an existing helper or copy nearby inline implementations?
Method. Paired clean and inconsistent code conditions, spanning synthetic files and pinned slices of JIG and Scout. Helper reuse and functional correctness were evaluated separately.
Finding. In the real-repository experiments, making the helper visible through an import changed reuse more than duplication in other files. Model choice also mattered, and one same-file example showed models following a nearby implementation.
Scope and limits. These experiments supplied repository context to coding models. They do not establish the behavior of agents that search and navigate a repository before editing it.