Scaffold Development Rules

Automatically set up development rules and coding conventions for AI coding agents. Manages rule files, updates AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md with guided workflow.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevOpsIntermediate
4803/10/2026
Claude CodeCursorCopilot
#rules-management#project-setup#development-conventions#agent-configuration#scaffold

Recommended for


name: scaffold-rules description: Scaffold development rules for AI coding agents. Auto-invoked when user asks about setting up rules, coding conventions, or configuring their AI agent environment. license: ISC compatibility: Requires bun allowed-tools: Bash, Glob, Read, Write, Edit, AskUserQuestion

Scaffold Rules

Scaffold development rules for AI coding agent environments.

Purpose

Use this skill when the user wants to:

  • Set up development rules or coding conventions
  • Configure their AI coding agent environment
  • Add or update project guidelines

Workflow

Step 1: Get Processed Templates from CLI

bunx @plaited/development-skills scaffold-rules

Parse the JSON output. The templates object contains all available rules - use these when presenting options to the user.

Step 2: Check for Existing Rules

If .plaited/rules/ already exists with files:

  • Warn the user that existing rules will be overwritten
  • Ask for confirmation before proceeding
  • If declined, abort

Step 3: Ask User Preferences

Present available templates from the CLI output and ask which to scaffold. Build options dynamically from templates keys and descriptions.

Step 4: Write Files

Rule Files

Write selected rules to .plaited/rules/ using content from templates[ruleId].content.

AGENTS.md (Marker-Based Update)

AGENTS.md is the single source of truth for rules content:

  1. Read existing file (or empty if missing)
  2. Find markers: <!-- PLAITED-RULES-START --> and <!-- PLAITED-RULES-END -->
  3. Update:
    • Markers exist: Replace content between markers (inclusive)
    • No markers: Append section to end of file
    • No file: Create with section content

Write agentsMdSection → AGENTS.md

CLAUDE.md (Reference Only)

CLAUDE.md only needs a reference to AGENTS.md:

  1. Check if CLAUDE.md exists
  2. If exists, scan file content for @AGENTS.md text
    • Found: Skip CLAUDE.md (already references AGENTS.md)
    • Not found: Append claudeMdReference to end of file
  3. If no file exists: Done (AGENTS.md only is sufficient)

Step 5: Output Summary

Report what was created/updated.

CLI Options

# All rules to .plaited/rules/
bunx @plaited/development-skills scaffold-rules

# List available rules (useful for discovery)
bunx @plaited/development-skills scaffold-rules --list

# Filter specific rules
bunx @plaited/development-skills scaffold-rules --rules <id> --rules <id>

# Custom directory
bunx @plaited/development-skills scaffold-rules --rules-dir=custom/rules

Note: Invalid rule names in --rules will produce a warning with available rule IDs.

Rules Directory Convention

| Directory | Purpose | Scope | |-----------|---------|-------| | .plaited/rules/ | Shared rules from scaffold-rules | Cross-agent (Claude, Cursor, Copilot, etc.) | | .claude/rules/ | Claude Code-specific overrides | Claude Code only | | .cursor/rules/ | Cursor-specific overrides | Cursor only |

How it works:

  • .plaited/rules/ contains shared rules - referenced by both CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md
  • Agent-specific directories can override or extend shared rules for that agent only
  • When scaffolding, always write to .plaited/rules/ unless user specifies --rules-dir

Related Skills

  • validate-skill - Validate skill directories against AgentSkills spec
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