Keep your agent instructions in one place

Every AI coding tool reads its rules from its own file: Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md, Codex reads AGENTS.md, Cursor reads .cursorrules, and so on. Yardmaster can copy one rules file into all the others, so you only maintain one. This page also explains what the Default Agent Instructions setting writes into your projects, and why your agent most likely does not see it.

What Default Agent Instructions does today#

Default Agent Instructions is on at first. In Settings > Agent Instructions you switch its rules on and off one by one:

• Remove AI attribution from commits & PRs (on)

• Protect cloud resources from accidental deletion (on)

• Create GitHub repos as private by default (on)

• Require professional README files (on)

• Check Firebase account before deploying (off)

• Isolate each session in its own git worktree (on)

Under Custom Instructions, Additional instructions for every session takes your own text.

Before each Claude session starts, Yardmaster writes the rules you turned on, and your own text, into .claude/amc-instructions.md in the session's folder. Yardmaster does not pass that file to Claude Code, and Claude Code reads only its own instruction files: CLAUDE.md, CLAUDE.local.md, .claude/CLAUDE.md and the .claude/rules/ folder. So in this version, your agent most likely never sees these rules.

One rule does take effect: Remove AI attribution from commits & PRs also turns off Claude Code's attribution in .claude/settings.json, a file Claude Code does read, so its commits and pull requests carry no AI credit line.

Make sure your agent follows a rule#

Put the rule in the project's CLAUDE.md, or in your global CLAUDE.md (in ~/.claude/) for every project. Claude Code reads both at the start of every session. You can open them from Auto Context, under System Instructions (see Give every session your project's documents).

Copy one rules file to your other tools#

Agent Instructions Sync is off at first. When it is on, you edit one file (the Canonical file) and Yardmaster writes copies under the names other tools read.

1. 1

   Open Settings > Optional Features.

2. 2

   Turn on Sync agent instructions across tools.

3. 3

   Under Canonical file, pick CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md: the file you will keep editing.

4. 4

   Under Mirror to, pick the copies you want, for example AGENTS.md (Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Factory…).

5. 5

   Open a project and click Sync now to write the copies.

The copies you can choose: AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md (Gemini CLI), .cursorrules (Cursor), .clinerules/base.md (Cline), .github/copilot-instructions.md (GitHub Copilot) and .windsurfrules (Windsurf). If you just want to cover most tools, AGENTS.md alone does it.

After the first sync, copies update by themselves: when you save the canonical file (in any editor, or when an agent edits it), and before each new Claude session. A project without the canonical file is skipped.

Your own files are safe#

Each copy starts with a comment line that marks it as made by Yardmaster. Yardmaster only ever rewrites files that carry that line, so a .cursorrules you wrote yourself is left alone and shows as manual file. If a copy was changed by something else since Yardmaster wrote it, Yardmaster does not overwrite it: it waits for you.

See the copies and fix a changed one#

In a project's sessions column (next to the projects), open Auto Context and look under System Instructions > Synced mirrors. Each copy shows a status: in sync, pending refresh, edited externally, needs first sync, still tracked in git or manual file.

Click edited externally or needs first sync to compare the two files and choose:

• Discard edits (on a copy that needs a first sync, the button reads, for example, Overwrite AGENTS.md with CLAUDE.md): replace the copy with the canonical file. The other text is lost.

• Promote to canonical: make the copy's text the new canonical file.

• Stop syncing this mirror: leave the file as it is and stop updating it.

Choose how copies live in git#

Under How copies are handled in git, on the same Settings card as the switch:

• Keep copies out of git (recommended), the default: Yardmaster adds the copies to the project's .gitignore in a marked block, so git ignores them. If copies were already committed, Stop tracking copies in git removes them from git but keeps the files on disk. It stages that removal; commit it to finish.

• Keep copies in git: for teammates who use other AI tools without Yardmaster. Yardmaster installs a git hook that rebuilds the copies after a merge or rebase and stages them; it never commits. Projects that manage their own hooks (for example with Husky) do not get the hook.

Turn sync off#

Turn off Sync agent instructions across tools. Yardmaster stops writing copies and deletes nothing: the files on disk stay as they are.