rules

name	rules
description	Maintains project .codex/rules and the AGENTS.md rule index. Explicit user invocation only.

Codex project rules

Use only when the user explicitly requests rule creation, synchronization, improvement, review, or inventory.

Sources of truth

• Store rule bodies under the project .codex/rules/; never use personal or foreign-assistant rule paths.
• Treat hierarchical AGENTS.md files as Codex's automatically loaded instruction surface.
• Keep rule content in one file. AGENTS.md contains a compact index, not copied rule bodies.

Workflow

1. Read the applicable AGENTS.md files and inventory every project rule with rg --files .codex/rules | sort.
2. Resolve the request to create, improve, review, list, or synchronize. Persist durable repository facts only; exclude secrets, transient session state, generated reports, and duplicate instructions.
3. Create or update English rule files under .codex/rules/. Reuse an existing rule when its scope matches.
4. Update the nearest applicable AGENTS.md rule-index table. The repository-root table lists every .codex/rules/*.md file exactly once with columns Rule, Load when, and Purpose. Nested tables add only subtree-specific rules not already covered by the inherited root index.
5. Invoke $brewtools:text-optimize -l for every changed rule and AGENTS.md index. Preserve paths, scope qualifiers, safety constraints, and table structure; apply the optimized patch only after comparing semantics.
6. Re-run the complete inventory. Fail validation when any rule path is missing from the root index, any indexed path is stale, or a rule body was duplicated into AGENTS.md.
7. Report changed rules, index rows, optimization measurements, and validation evidence.

The index makes rules discoverable; it does not auto-load their bodies. During later work, read the indexed rule whose Load when condition matches the task.