{
  "title": "Project rules",
  "description": "Load persistent or path-scoped instructions from a documented product rule format.",
  "slug": "native-rules",
  "locale": "en",
  "seoTitle": "Project rules compatibility — Can My Agent Use",
  "socialTitle": "Project rules",
  "socialDescription": "Discover persistent or path-scoped instructions in the product's own rule format. Unreviewed product cells remain unknown.",
  "llmSummary": "Product-native rules is atomic and does not follow automatically from broader instructions support.",
  "audience": "Engineers comparing agent harness capabilities.",
  "contentKind": "feature",
  "status": "published",
  "tags": [
    "interfaces",
    "instructions"
  ],
  "updated": "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "published": "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "category": "interfaces",
  "summary": "Load persistent or path-scoped instructions from a documented product rule format.",
  "specLabel": "Common product term",
  "aliases": [
    "agent rules"
  ],
  "capabilityKind": "atomic",
  "parent": "instructions",
  "related": [],
  "relations": [],
  "highlight": false,
  "notes": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Claude Code loads persistent CLAUDE.md instructions and recursively discovers unconditional or path-scoped Markdown rules in .claude/rules."
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Cursor project rules are versioned .mdc files under .cursor/rules with always-on, relevance, glob, or manual activation."
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Gemini CLI automatically loads hierarchical GEMINI.md context files and discovers more-specific files just in time."
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: VS Code supports workspace-wide copilot-instructions.md plus path- or task-scoped .instructions.md files."
    },
    {
      "id": 5,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Copilot CLI supports repository-wide copilot-instructions.md and path-specific .instructions.md files."
    },
    {
      "id": 6,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Cline's primary workspace rule format is Markdown or text under .clinerules, with optional paths conditions."
    },
    {
      "id": 7,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Continue loads persistent workspace rules from .continue/rules and supports glob-scoped rule frontmatter."
    },
    {
      "id": 8,
      "text": "Evidence checked 2026-08-28: Windsurf loads workspace Markdown rules from .windsurf/rules with always-on, glob, model-decision, or manual activation."
    }
  ],
  "issues": [],
  "resources": [
    {
      "title": "Methodology",
      "href": "/methodology",
      "kind": "note"
    },
    {
      "id": "microsoft-vscode-custom-instructions",
      "title": "Visual Studio Code — Custom instructions",
      "href": "https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/agent-customization/custom-instructions",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Microsoft",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Types of instruction files and .instructions.md files"
    },
    {
      "id": "anthropic-claude-code-memory-rules",
      "title": "Anthropic — How Claude remembers your project",
      "href": "https://code.claude.com/docs/en/memory",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Anthropic",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "CLAUDE.md files and organize rules with .claude/rules"
    },
    {
      "id": "cursor-project-rules",
      "title": "Cursor — Rules",
      "href": "https://prod.cursor.com/docs/rules",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Cursor",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Project rules and rule anatomy"
    },
    {
      "id": "google-gemini-context-files",
      "title": "Google — Provide context with GEMINI.md files",
      "href": "https://geminicli.com/docs/cli/gemini-md/",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Google",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Understand the context hierarchy"
    },
    {
      "id": "github-copilot-cli-custom-instructions",
      "title": "GitHub — Adding custom instructions for Copilot CLI",
      "href": "https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/customize-copilot/add-custom-instructions",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "GitHub",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Supported instruction locations"
    },
    {
      "id": "cline-primary-rules",
      "title": "Cline — Rules",
      "href": "https://docs.cline.bot/customization/cline-rules",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Cline",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Supported rule types and paths conditional"
    },
    {
      "id": "continue-project-rules",
      "title": "Continue — Create and manage rules",
      "href": "https://docs.continue.dev/customize/deep-dives/rules",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Continue",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Project-specific rules and rule file frontmatter"
    },
    {
      "id": "windsurf-workspace-rules",
      "title": "Windsurf — Memories and Rules",
      "href": "https://docs.windsurf.com/windsurf/cascade/memories",
      "kind": "docs",
      "publisher": "Windsurf",
      "evidenceType": "documented",
      "reviewedAt": "2026-08-28",
      "locator": "Rules scope table"
    }
  ],
  "support": [
    {
      "harness": "claude-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            1
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Claude Code memory documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "anthropic-claude-code-memory-rules",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "cursor",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            2
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Cursor Rules documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [
            {
              "type": "host-role",
              "value": "claim is scoped to Cursor Agent in the desktop workbench"
            }
          ],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "cursor-project-rules",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "gemini-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            3
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Gemini CLI context-file documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "google-gemini-context-files",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "vscode-copilot",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            4
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current VS Code custom-instructions documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "microsoft-vscode-custom-instructions",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "copilot-cli",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            5
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current GitHub Copilot CLI custom-instructions documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "github-copilot-cli-custom-instructions",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "cline",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            6
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Cline Rules documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "cline-primary-rules",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "continue",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            7
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Continue Rules documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "continue-project-rules",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "harness": "windsurf",
      "versions": [
        {
          "track": "current",
          "status": "yes",
          "noteIds": [
            8
          ],
          "target": {
            "kind": "dated-documentation",
            "revision": "current Windsurf Rules documentation",
            "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
          },
          "environmentProfile": "local-default",
          "qualifiers": [],
          "evidence": [
            {
              "resourceId": "windsurf-workspace-rules",
              "type": "documented",
              "observedAt": "2026-08-28"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "html": "/features/native-rules",
  "markdown": "/features/native-rules.md",
  "json": "/api/v1/features/native-rules.json",
  "body": "Load persistent or path-scoped instructions from a documented product rule format.\n\nSupport is recorded only when exact, dated evidence covers this behavior."
}