Should coding agent rules live in the repo or in the tool?
The article weighs two places to store standing instructions for coding agents: versioned files in the repository or built into the tool itself. Repo-based rules are reviewable, shared across the team, and travel with the codebase, but must be maintained per project. Tool-based rules work everywhere without setup, yet remain invisible to review and can conflict with a specific repo's conventions. The author's tool, Styx, bundles core guidance from several public repositories covering coding, interfaces, design review, and system design. The author argues that when the two sources conflict, the repository's rules should take precedence because it understands the project better than the tool does.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.

Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in