Rules That Survive the Prompt — AI For Dummies
A
field guide
Pipeline
Skills
Examples
Recall
EN
/
PT
A real repository case study
Rules that
survive the
prompt.
Prompts ask for behavior. Repositories preserve it. The interview project combines written context, reusable skills, executable checks, commit hooks, and independent review so the rule is still present when the conversation is gone.
CASE / NETCRACKER
interview
8 skills · 3 agents · 4 enforcement layers
THE SHORT VERSION
A prompt is advice for one run. A repository rule is reusable context plus an executable boundary.
Enforcement pipeline
select a checkpoint
From intent to evidence
Five places
a rule can
hold.
Not every rule belongs in a hook. Put guidance where an agent can discover it, deterministic policy in a command, cheap checks at commit time, and independent judgment at review.
01
CONTEXT
AGENTS.md
→
02
SKILLS
.agents/skills
→
03
CLI
check:ui
→
04
COMMIT
Husky
→
05
REVIEW
pragent
Project-local skills
procedures born from repeated friction
Small instruction packages
Teach the trap.
Name the
trigger.
These skills are not downloaded magic. They are repository-specific procedures under
.agents/skills/
, distilled from mistakes, commands, and architectural decisions that kept recurring.
gate-discipline
prove green is real
parallel-agents
worktree per task
repo-db
query before crawling
tech-debt
separate line of work
skill-writer
repeat twice, encode once
frontend / go-api
stack-specific traps
Concrete examples
open the source, then adapt
CLI RATCHET
Debt may go down.
Never silently up.
pnpm check:ui
# raw buttons
# swallowed catches
# pages without h1
# hardcoded colours
Read the checker →
HUSKY / PRE-COMMIT
Fast checks before history.
pnpm exec lint-staged
node scripts/check-ui-contract.mjs
Read the hook →
COMMIT MESSAGE
Intent has a grammar.
pnpm exec commitlint --edit $1
feat: add interview timer
fix(api): scope session query
Read commitlint config →
INDEPENDENT REVIEW
A second reader checks intent.
.pr-review.json
├── focus
├── exclude_paths
├── languages
└── instructions
Read review policy →
Retrieval practice
answer before you open
Desirable difficulty
Close the
page.
Recall.
Retrieval practice — recalling an answer from memory before re-reading — is what builds long-term retention. Answer each question from memory first, then open it to check.
Where does a rule belong: context, skill, CLI check, or hook?
+
Guidance the agent must discover goes in AGENTS.md or a skill. Deterministic policy becomes a CLI command, cheap gates run at commit time, and judgment calls go to review.
Why does a skill need a trigger, not just a workflow?
+
The trigger says when to load it. Without one the skill either never fires or loads every time — and a skill that always loads is just a slower prompt.
What separates a repository rule from a prompt?
+
The prompt is advice for one run. The rule is reusable context plus an executable boundary — still present when the conversation is gone.
COPY / ADAPT
Ask your agent to map the enforcement stack.
Use this in the interview repository or adapt the path names to another project.
COPY PROMPT
↗
GO DEEPER
Read the implementation, not just this summary.
01
Repository context
AGENTS.md
02
Skill catalog
.agents/skills/
03
Design skills
skills/
03
Specialist agents
.claude/agents/
04
Staged-file policy
.lintstagedrc.cjs
