writing-project-instructions
Skill0 starsChanged 51 days agoMITView on GitHub
Use when creating or editing a CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, when it has grown long, or when a rule in it also exists in an installed skill.
1 other project uses a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- shaharsha/claude-skillstheir own version, first seen Oct 24, 2026
Other versions1 project uses a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 1
- shaharsha/claude-skills★ 6same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository20 other files it gives its agents.
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- templates/CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- capturing-decisionsSkill
- choosing-subagent-modelsSkill
- committing-changesSkill
- debugging-systematicallySkill
- delegating-workSkill
- designing-changesSkill
- exploring-a-codebaseSkill
- injecting-dependenciesSkill
- planning-changesSkill
- pruning-testsSkill
- reflecting-on-changesSkill
- resolving-conflictsSkill
- reviewing-codeSkill
- verifying-changesSkill
- writing-commentsSkill
- writing-logsSkill
- writing-skillsSkill
- writing-testsSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
1 rule. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈1
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 23
Test for moving something out: would it still make sense in a different repo?
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Writing project instructions
CLAUDE.md is read on every turn of every session; a skill's body costs nothing until it fires. Past a couple of hundred lines adherence drops, and the rule that mattered competes with forty that did not apply.
What goes where
| Content | Home |
| Facts only this repo knows — how to build, run, test it | CLAUDE.md |
| Constraints invisible in the file being edited — layering rules, generated files, frozen names | CLAUDE.md |
| Standing preferences about how to respond | CLAUDE.md |
| A discipline needed only for a certain kind of work | a skill |
| A rule that must hold whether or not the model cooperates | a hook |
| Anything an installed skill already states | a one-line reference, never a copy |
Test for moving something out: would it still make sense in a different repo? Then it is a discipline, paid for on every turn to be relevant on a few.
Never duplicate an installed skill
- A rule in both places is forked, not reinforced. When the copies drift, the always-on one wins.
Replace the copy with a reference:
- **Testing:** `vvkit:writing-tests` for whether a test is owed, `vvkit-swift:swift-testing` for how to write one. - **Debugging:** `vvkit:debugging-systematically` — trace to origin before proposing a fix.- Before removing a rule, confirm the skill states it. A rule with no home gets migrated first; deleting it because it "feels covered" is how a convention silently stops being followed. A portable rule with no home is a missing skill.
Keep what is genuinely always-on
- The repo's build, test and lint commands — they save a discovery pass every session.
- Constraints broken by the very edit that would trigger the skill.
- Output and tone preferences.
- Anything a hook depends on the reader knowing.
Shape
- Short sections with headings, so a reader skips what does not apply.
- Rules as rules, with the reason where it is not obvious — a reason generalises to the case the rule did not spell out.
- Plain statements. Emphasis everywhere marks nothing.
/vvkit:wire reconciles a CLAUDE.md against the installed skills mechanically. Read it before doing
the same edit by hand.
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
- Partly
- It didn't
Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.