Rules

Rules are assets that define behavioral constraints or conventions a coding agent must follow throughout a session. A rule can be a single Markdown file or a directory.

Directory layout

rules/
├── no-emojis.md
├── always-test.md
└── security-standards/
    └── ...

File format

Each rule is a markdown file whose base filename describes the constraint it encodes. The file body states the rule in plain language. Frontmatter is optional.

Deploy behavior

nd symlinks the individual file into the target location. Running nd deploy rules/no-emojis produces:

~/.claude/rules/no-emojis.md → <source>/rules/no-emojis.md

Scope rules

Scope	Target path
Global	`~/.claude/rules/<name>.md`
Project	`.claude/rules/<name>.md`

Asset type comparison for a side-by-side overview of all types

Create a rule

cat > ~/my-assets/rules/no-emojis.md << 'EOF'
Never use emojis in code comments, commit messages, or documentation unless the user explicitly requests them.
EOF
nd deploy rules/no-emojis

Output styles Context