Agent Rules

Forkable, harness-neutral agent rules — user.md, harness.md, machine.md layers; 1-step assembly for local AI coding assistants.

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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Installation
3. Usage
4. Agent skills
5. Contributing
6. Contact

Layer names vs harness vocabulary

Our files name layers; harness products say rules a lot. Full table: https://docs.devcentr.org/agent-rules/harness-neutral.html#layer-names-vs-harness-vocabulary

Our layer	File	Typical harness equivalent
User	user.md	Cursor User Rules; Claude user CLAUDE.md; system prompt / custom instructions
Harness	$CODE_ROOT/harness.md	Injection + discovery wiring (ALWAYS_ON_RULES in harness.md)
Machine	$CODE_ROOT/machine.md	Local env notes — not synced User Rules
Org	AGENTS.md	Stacked after user.md in always-on slot
Project	<repo>/AGENTS.md	Cursor .cursor/rules/*.mdc; project CLAUDE.md

user.md = portable policy content. harness.md = where that content is injected on this machine. Core templates stay .md; .mdc is for Cursor-local adapters only (see docs).

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About The Project

Canonical forkable agent rules and profiles for coding assistants under Dev-Centr. Content is meant to be read by agents (from disk) or pasted into an app's rules field. Harness-neutral: templates do not assume Cursor, Claude Code, Hermes, or any single AI toolkit — machine and harness facts live in $CODE_ROOT/harness.md and $CODE_ROOT/machine.md.

Org wrapper (house init): each org this hive owns gets {org}/agent-rules with a pointer README and a thin org AGENTS.md — no git submodule (a SHA pin goes stale). Not a requirement for every GitHub org. {org}/.github/AGENT-RULES.md points at the wrapper. Shared rules stay in this repo; clone/fetch it. Script: scripts/setup-org-agent-rules-wrapper.ps1. Fork only when you need a diverging private tree.

Docs: https://docs.devcentr.org/agent-rules/ — start with Harness-neutral architecture (illustrated guide).

Dev-Centr product behavior (when the app acts on behalf of the user) does not live here. It belongs in dev-centr/devcentr-agent-rules.

Architecture

flowchart TB
  subgraph forkable [agent-rules forkable]
    G[general/]
    P[profiles/]
    R[user.md]
    M[README.md]
  end
  subgraph machine [Machine-local]
    H["$CODE_ROOT/harness.md"]
    MEM["$CODE_ROOT/machine.md"]
  end
  subgraph product [devcentr-agent-rules]
    X[Dev-Centr product rules]
  end
  R --> G
  R --> P
  H -.-> forkable
  MEM -.-> forkable
  product -.->|used by Dev-Centr app| forkable

Loading

• agent-rules (this repository): portable rules (user.md, general/, profiles/) and org layer (AGENTS.md, agents/, org skills/). Satellite orgs clone/fetch dev-centr/agent-rules as AGENT_RULES_PATH — wrapper repos hold only org overlay text.
• devcentr-agent-rules: rules for when the Dev-Centr app acts on behalf of the user (separate repository).
• harness.md + machine.md: this user's machine; never commit. See harness.example.md and machine.example.md.

Built With

• Rules format — Markdown modules under general/ and profiles/
• Assembly — paste user.md, or compose via rules-manager
• Harness setup — skill harness-setup populates $CODE_ROOT/harness.md
• Optional template blanks — readme-template

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Installation

1. Clone into your code hive, for example $CODE_ROOT/github.com/<your-username>/agent-rules (see general/folder-schema.md).
2. Optional path convenience: on Windows, a directory junction can point at this clone. Junctions are temporary. Prefer configuring dev-centr/rules-manager (rules_repo_path) to compose and watch global + machine sections into $CODE_ROOT/agent-rules.composed.md.
3. Copy profiles/my-desktop.md or profiles/my-laptop.md to a name you like, set constants (CODE_ROOT, GITHUB_USER, ISSUES_REPO, ENVIRONMENT …).
4. Run skill harness-setup (or copy harness.example.md → $CODE_ROOT/harness.md) so the agent records harness discovery paths and chat behaviors on this machine.
5. user.md is written for the agent. Paste it (or the composed file) into your harness always-on rules slot. Fill Constants before saving.
6. Optional: agent skills — start at skills/BOOTSTRAP.md; install per $harness.md; keep skill bodies out of always-on rules.

Profile constants (your profiles/*.md)

Constant	Required?	Purpose
CODE_ROOT	Yes	Root directory where you clone Git repos (see general/folder-schema.md).
ENVIRONMENT	Yes	windows, mac, or linux — selects general/windows.md, general/mac.md, or general/linux.md.
GITHUB_USER	No	Your username for path examples and org layouts.
ISSUES_REPO	No	Path to your .issues repo if you use that workflow.

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Usage

Pointing the agent at this repository

This repository uses a 1-step assembly architecture optimized for local AI harnesses (Cursor, Claude Code, Hermes, T3code, Windsurf, and others) that have filesystem access.

When you paste user.md into your agent and define $AGENT_RULES_PATH, you command the AI to perform a batched read of foundational modules simultaneously using native file tools.

The agent will automatically pull:

1. profiles/<infer-profile-name>.md
2. $CODE_ROOT/harness.md and $CODE_ROOT/machine.md
3. general/harness.md, general/harness-boundary.md, general/global.md
4. general/environment.md, general/<windows|mac|linux>.md, general/creator.md, general/folder-schema.md
5. (when docs) general/documentation.md
6. Heavy playbooks: agent skills — see skills/CATALOG.md

Illustrated guide: https://docs.devcentr.org/agent-rules/harness-neutral.html

For Dev-Centr automation acting on behalf of the user, load devcentr-agent-rules, not this repository.

Machine-local files

File	Purpose
$CODE_ROOT/harness.md	Harness name, skill discovery, always-on slot, chat/citation behaviors
$CODE_ROOT/machine.md	Workstation facts — tool paths, PATH gaps, hardware

Templates: harness.example.md, machine.example.md. Never commit either file.

Satellite orgs (no wrapper changes needed)

Orgs with {org}/agent-rules pointer overlays resolve AGENT_RULES_PATH to dev-centr/agent-rules. git pull in the canonical clone picks up shared portable + org policy; wrapper repos only hold org-specific AGENTS.md diffs.

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Agent skills

Optional, on-demand curricula live under skills/ and are not part of user.md / MAIN.md assembly.

• Shop file: skills/BOOTSTRAP.md
• Harness setup: skill harness-setup
• Hub docs: https://docs.devcentr.org/agent-rules/harness-neutral.html
• Authoring skills: write-a-skill — YAML description is trigger words, not a lay blurb
• Release tags: skill tag-release

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Contributing

Portable rule improvements welcome as pull requests. Do not embed machine paths or harness-specific install steps in forkable templates — use placeholders and $harness.md.

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Contact

DevCentr.org - support@devcentr.org

Project Link: https://github.com/dev-centr/agent-rules

Site: https://devcentr.org

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