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Command: rule

agent-trace rule <ACTION> ...

Purpose: Install or remove prebuilt markdown rules that teach coding agents how to use agent-trace features (today: primarily context workflows).

ACTION is optional at argparse level; if omitted, the CLI prints usage (rule {add,remove,show,list}).


rule list

agent-trace rule list

Prints all available prebuilt rule names and descriptions to stdout.

Exit: 0.


rule show

agent-trace rule show

Lists currently installed rules in the current project (both Cursor and Claude files are scanned).

Exit: 0 even when none installed (prints guidance).


rule add

agent-trace rule add <rule_name> --tool <cursor|claude|codex>
Positional Description
rule_name Short name (example: context-for-agents).
Option Short Required Values
--tool -t yes cursor, claude, codex

Files written:

Tool Path
cursor .cursor/rules/agent-trace-<rule_name>.mdc
claude .claude/rules/agent-trace-<rule_name>.md
codex .codex/rules/agent-trace-<rule_name>.md

Exit: 0 on success; 1 if unknown rule name or IO error.


rule remove

agent-trace rule remove <rule_name> --tool <cursor|claude|codex>

Same --tool / -t requirement as add. Idempotent messaging if the file was not present.


Available rules (current ship set)

rule_name Intent
context-for-agents Teaches agents to call agent-trace context with --json, use optional summary / preview when enough, interpret conversation_size, and delegate large --full reads to subagents when needed.

Additional rules may appear in future releases — always run rule list on your installed version.