Scaffold Rules

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

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