Rules

Rules are markdown files that provide context and constraints to Claude Code. They auto-load based on file paths — edit a backend route handler and the backend rules kick in automatically.

How rules work

Rules live in .claude/rules/ and are scoped by file path patterns. When Claude Code is working on a file, matching rules are injected into context.

.claude/rules/
├── backend.md      # Loaded when editing backend/**/*
├── web.md          # Loaded when editing web/**/*
├── mobile.md       # Loaded when editing mobile/**/*
└── general.md      # Loaded for all files

Rule file format

Rules are plain markdown. No special frontmatter required.

# Backend Rules

## Tech Stack
- Express (JSON API endpoints)
- MySQL 8
- Jest for testing

## Patterns
- Route handlers are thin — business logic lives in services
- Authorization checks live in middleware, not handlers
- All queries scoped to the current account

Path-based auto-loading

crewkit uses the file path pattern in the rule name to determine when to load it:

This is configured in your project's CLAUDE.md:

> Component-specific rules auto-load by path:
> `backend/**/*` -> `.claude/rules/backend.md`
> `web/**/*` -> `.claude/rules/web.md`
> `mobile/**/*` -> `.claude/rules/mobile.md`

Sync behavior

Rules sync the same way as agents — fetched from the API, written to .claude/rules/, checksummed to avoid overwriting local edits.

Rule tiers

Rules can exist at platform, organization, or project level. See Inheritance.

Next steps

• Commands
• Agents
• Inheritance