Semantic Anchor Onboarding

Semantic Anchor Onboarding

Install a small, stable set of semantic anchors so coding agents start each session with the same working vocabulary. Prefer project-local onboarding for portability; add user-level memory only when the user wants personal defaults across repositories.

Workflow

1. Decide scope and portability.

• Prefer project-local onboarding when the goal is "works across as many agents as possible."
• Use user-level memory only for agents that support it natively. Do not promise universal home-directory onboarding across all tools.
• Read references/agent-support.md before writing files.

2. Select anchors.

• Keep the always-on set small: usually 3 to 7 anchors.
• Ask for zero or more anchors per category, but force a single primary choice inside the conflict groups listed in references/anchor-selection.md.
• Separate always-on defaults from task-local anchors. Put stable team conventions in startup files; keep exploratory methods task-local unless the user explicitly wants them always on.

3. Render the selected anchor block.

• Start from assets/templates/anchor-block.md.
• Fill in the selected anchors as a concise markdown block without markers; the installer adds markers automatically.
• Name each selected anchor explicitly and add one sentence on how it should influence behavior.
• Add precedence rules when two selected anchors might pull in different directions.
• State that explicit user instructions override the default anchors.

4. Run the installer instead of editing by hand.

• Use scripts/install.sh --source /path/to/anchor-block.md --target-dir <repo> --scope project for repository onboarding.
• Use scripts/install.sh --source /path/to/anchor-block.md --scope home for personal onboarding.
• The installer follows the same pattern as ToonDex: inject into the first suitable existing markdown file, otherwise create a minimal AGENTS.md.
• The installer writes an idempotent marker block so future updates replace the old anchor section instead of appending duplicates.

5. Add native behavior only where needed.

• For Claude Code, add --claude-hook if the user wants a SessionStart hook that re-injects the selected block at the beginning of each session.
• For Gemini CLI, either rely on the shared file chosen by the installer or mirror the same block into GEMINI.md if the team wants native Gemini memory.
• For GitHub Copilot, mirror the same block into .github/copilot-instructions.md only when chat or review workflows also need it.
• For Cursor, the shared file is usually enough; use .cursor/rules only when path-scoped behavior is required.

6. Validate on a fresh session.

• Start a new session in each target agent.
• Ask the agent to list the active semantic anchors and explain how they will affect the next answer.
• If the agent misses anchors, shorten the file, move prose out, and make the active list more explicit.

Writing Rules

• Prefer AGENTS.md as the cross-agent baseline.
• Prefer project onboarding over user onboarding when the user says "all agents."
• Prefer one primary anchor in each mutually exclusive cluster.
• Keep anchor text concrete. Name the anchor and expected behavior; avoid essays.
• Do not make Chain of Thought an always-on requirement unless the user explicitly asks for it; reasoning visibility differs across agents.
• Treat architecture, documentation, testing, and communication anchors as safer always-on defaults than adversarial or exploratory techniques.
• If the user wants both home and project setup, put personal style in home-level memory and team or process anchors in project-level files.

References

• Agent loading rules and portability: references/agent-support.md
• Category prompts, overlap rules, and one-line explainers: references/anchor-selection.md

Assets

Reusable starter templates live in assets/templates/:

• anchor-block.md
• AGENTS.md
• CLAUDE.md
• GEMINI.md
• copilot-instructions.md

Scripts

• scripts/install.sh
• scripts/claude-session-start.sh

Use the installer first. Mirror into native files only when a target agent requires it.

Requirements

• Runtime: python3 (used by install.sh and claude-session-start.sh for JSON manipulation and path resolution)
• Platform: Unix/macOS (WSL on Windows). Shell scripts use Unix paths ($HOME/.claude/, $HOME/.codex/) and are not Windows-native.

Maintenance

• Treat skill/ as the canonical source for generic skills.
• Regenerate the Claude plugin skill copies with scripts/sync-claude-plugin.sh.
• Do not edit both skill/ and plugins/semantic-anchors/skills/ by hand.

Source: LLM-Coding/Semantic-Anchors — distributed by TomeVault.