Place Fact

Primitive: PLACE — which durable owner and delivery boundary should hold this material?

Steps

1. Name the delivery trigger — the moment a future agent must already hold the material. A topic, folder, or existing file does not choose the home; the trigger does.

2. Map the trigger to the narrowest reliable home:

   Trigger	Home	Admit only when
   Any repository task	Root AGENTS.md	The instruction or route is repository-wide and non-derivable.
   Reading or editing one mechanism	Comment or docstring beside it	The mechanism needs a constraint, assumption, or tempting-wrong-path warning.
   Reading, editing, or creating files in one cohesive subtree	Nearest ancestor AGENTS.md	A real module boundary has one rule for every current and future file below it.
   Working with files selected by path patterns rather than directory hierarchy	Claude path rule in .claude/rules/	Quoted paths: globs scope the instruction to matching files.
   Starting a named product, design, operations, or decision task	Maintained task document	Cross-cutting context has an inbound route and a workflow that keeps it current.
   Running a repeatable repository-local procedure	Named workflow document	The procedure remains multi-step and repository-specific.
   Running a repeatable cross-repository or external-platform procedure	Skill	The procedure has a reliable trigger; a repository-internal fact alone is not a skill.
   Tracking queued or in-progress work	Active-state document	A workflow reads, updates, and retires it.
   Preserving a scoped question, evidence, provisional findings, or open decisions	Dated investigation outside ordinary auto-load	Closure promotes current conclusions, routes unfinished work to active state, and retains only unique evidence.

3. Choose the delivery boundary before considering file reuse:
   • Create. Create an artifact when its trigger and scope form a distinct delivery boundary.
   • Reuse. Reuse an artifact only when its trigger, scope, audience, upkeep, and retirement path already match.
   • Split. Split an artifact when it mixes material with different triggers or scopes.
   • Judge bloat. Look for duplicated ownership, mixed scopes, broken routes, and unnecessary eager loading; file count alone is not bloat.
4. Confirm the full placement contract:
   • Owner and scope. Name one canonical owner and the exact paths, subtree, task, or procedure it governs.
   • Delivery. Keep one write path; use a relative symlink, native import, or generated view for another loader. Fall back to a copy only when derivation cannot work, and guard equality automatically.
   • Upkeep. Name what keeps the material current: editing it beside its source, a workflow, or an executable guard.
   • Retirement. Name the event that removes or re-homes the material.
5. Prove the delivery before committing the placement:
   • Prefer executable guards. Keep prose only for a decision, rationale, or required companion action that detection alone cannot convey.
   • Verify every agent. Confirm every supported agent discovers the material at its trigger and, when applicable, after compaction.
   • Cover future files. A Claude path rule may not fire on a new-file write; put a convention governing future files in the nearest AGENTS.md.
   • Store Claude path rules once. Keep each file-matching rule in .claude/rules/, with quoted paths: globs.
   • Point only when needed. Point from AGENTS.md only to a must-read target that will not already auto-load.
   • Point to Claude path rules only for gaps. Use one only for a cross-layer obligation or new-file gap; otherwise let the rule fire or widen its paths.
   • Skip redundant routing. Never point one AGENTS.md to another that already auto-loads, and never maintain a folder-to-owner map.