Enforce AI coding standards across every agent and tool

@hivehub/rulebook

Tool-agnostic AI development framework. One init generates AGENTS.md - the universal standard every AI coding agent reads - plus Claude Code integration, quality gates, spec-driven task management, and an MCP server. Auto-detects 28 languages.

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Quick Start

# Initialize - auto-detects languages and sets up rules, gates, and MCP
npx @hivehub/rulebook@latest init

# Update an existing project to the latest rules
npx @hivehub/rulebook@latest update

# Apply the recommended Claude Code setup (MCP, agents, workflows, settings)
npx @hivehub/rulebook@latest claude

Then, inside Claude Code, spec a feature and let the backlog implement itself:

/spec rate-limit the public REST API   # asks questions, creates rulebook tasks
/rulebook-driver                        # implements every task, opus review gate

Install globally with npm install -g @hivehub/rulebook to use rulebook directly.

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Why Rulebook

AI coding agents produce inconsistent, error-prone code without clear guidelines. Rulebook gives every agent the same rules from a single source of truth - and stays tool-agnostic by generating the AGENTS.md standard that Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, Copilot, and other agents read natively. No per-tool adapters to maintain.

What	How
Universal rules	AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md generated from one source - read natively by any AGENTS.md-aware agent
Quality gates	Pre-commit (lint, type-check, format) + pre-push (build, tests) hooks - language-aware, cross-platform
Spec-driven tasks	OpenSpec-compatible tasks with mandatory docs + tests + verify tail, driven by an opus review gate
MCP tools	Task management, skills, decisions, knowledge, learnings, workspace - over Model Context Protocol
Structural enforcement	A PreToolUse hook blocks stubs/TODOs/deferred tasks before edits reach disk
28 languages	Auto-detected with confidence scores; language-specific templates and CI/CD workflows

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Core Features

Modular rules

Rulebook generates a thin @import chain instead of one massive file:

CLAUDE.md (thin, ~100 lines)
  @imports AGENTS.md          - team-shared rules
  @imports AGENTS.override.md - your project overrides (survives updates)
  @imports .rulebook/STATE.md - live task/health status
  @imports .rulebook/PLANS.md - session scratchpad

AGENTS.md is the portable, tool-agnostic output. Path-scoped rules in .claude/rules/ load only when the agent touches matching files (e.g. TypeScript rules for .ts files). A small set of always-on rules enforce core behaviors: diagnostic-first, fail-twice-escalate, no-deferred, no-shortcuts, sequential-editing.

Task management

Spec-driven development in an OpenSpec-compatible format - phase-prefixed task IDs, a mandatory tail (docs + tests + verify), and automatic archival.

rulebook task create phase1_add-auth    # Create task with structure
rulebook task list                       # See pending work
rulebook task validate phase1_add-auth   # Check format
rulebook task archive phase1_add-auth    # Archive when done

Each task gets proposal.md (why), tasks.md (checklist), and specs/ (SHALL/MUST requirements with Given/When/Then scenarios).

Knowledge, decisions & learnings

Lightweight, file-based project memory - plain markdown, searchable, committed with your repo.

rulebook knowledge list      # patterns and anti-patterns
rulebook decision list       # architecture decision records
rulebook learn list          # captured implementation learnings

Structural enforcement

A single PreToolUse hook blocks forbidden patterns at the tool level - before edits reach disk: deferred/skip/later/TODO in tasks.md, stubs/placeholders/HACK/FIXME in source, and manual task-file creation in .rulebook/tasks/. Cross-platform (Node.js, no jq dependency), and short-circuits in pure bash so a normal edit costs ~one process spawn.

Multi-project workspace

One MCP server manages every project in a monorepo, with fully isolated per-project managers.

rulebook workspace init                 # Create workspace config
rulebook workspace add ./frontend       # Add projects
rulebook mcp init --workspace           # Single MCP for all

Auto-discovers from pnpm-workspace.yaml, turbo.json, nx.json, lerna.json, or *.code-workspace.

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Multi-Agent Workflows

rulebook init/update installs orchestrated Claude Code Workflow scripts into .claude/workflows/. Each fans work across bundled agents with cost-tiered models - haiku for read-only steps, sonnet for implementation, opus for the final review gate.

Workflow	What it does
rulebook-driver	Loops the backlog: next unchecked item → implement (SDD+TDD) → independent opus review gate (≤3 rounds) → document → next
spec-author	Research → draft proposal + SHALL/MUST spec → opus gap-critic returns ranked questions + gaps
feature-pipeline	research → architect (opus) → implement → test → opus review → document
bugfix	root-cause → TDD fix → opus quality-gatekeeper verdict (≤2 rounds)
review-fanout	Adversarial multi-dimension review of the diff, each finding verified, opus synthesis
release-gate	Parallel build / tests+coverage / security / docs → single go/no-go

The independent reviewers run as fresh subagents with no developer context - they see only the git diff plus the spec, so the gate is a genuine second opinion.

/rulebook-driver                              # drain the whole backlog
/spec-author { "topic": "rate-limit the public API" }
/review-fanout                                # reviews the current git diff
/release-gate                                 # go/no-go before a release

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Claude Code Setup

rulebook claude applies the recommended Claude Code setup in one idempotent, non-interactive step.

rulebook claude                 # apply the recommended setup
rulebook claude --model opus    # same, but set the default model (default: sonnet)

It installs the MCP server entry, skills, agent definitions, and workflows, then layers an opinionated, cost-aware .claude/settings.json:

Applied	Detail
Hook	a single PreToolUse quality-enforcement hook (no per-turn or per-session hooks by default)
Permissions allowlist	auto-approves safe read-only Bash (ls/cat/grep/rg/find/git status|diff|log|blame/npm run type-check/npm test) + mcp__rulebook
statusLine	shows project dir + git branch
model	cost-aware default (sonnet; opus stays reserved for the workflow review gates)

All settings are additive and non-clobbering - existing permissions.allow, a user-authored statusLine, and an explicit model are preserved. Requires Claude Code installed (~/.claude); otherwise it no-ops with a notice.

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MCP Server

MCP tools over stdio transport. Zero configuration after rulebook mcp init.

rulebook mcp init    # One-time setup - configures .mcp.json automatically

Category	Tools
Tasks	create, list, show, update, validate, archive, delete
Skills	list, show, enable, disable, search, validate
Knowledge	add, list, show
Decisions	create, list, show, update
Learnings	capture, list, promote
Workspace	list, status, search, tasks
Other	rules list, session start/end

All tools accept an optional projectId for workspace routing.

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CLI Reference

# Project setup
rulebook init                    # Interactive setup (auto-detects everything)
rulebook init --minimal          # Essentials only
rulebook init --lean             # AGENTS.md as a <3KB index
rulebook update                  # Update to the latest rules
rulebook doctor                  # Health checks (file sizes, broken imports, stale state)
rulebook claude                  # Apply the recommended Claude Code setup

# Tasks
rulebook task create <task-id>   # Create (phase-prefixed: phase1_add-auth)
rulebook task list               # List active tasks
rulebook task archive <task-id>  # Archive a completed task

# Knowledge / decisions / learnings
rulebook knowledge list
rulebook decision list
rulebook learn list

# Workspace
rulebook workspace init
rulebook workspace add <path>
rulebook workspace status

# CI/CD & quality
rulebook workflows               # Generate GitHub Actions
rulebook check-coverage          # Check test coverage
rulebook version <major|minor|patch>

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Supported Languages

TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Go, Java, Kotlin, C, C++, C#, PHP, Ruby, Swift, Elixir, Dart, Scala, Haskell, Julia, R, Lua, Solidity, Zig, Erlang, Ada, SAS, Lisp, Objective-C, SQL - auto-detected with confidence scores, each with language-specific templates and CI/CD workflows.

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Configuration

All config lives in .rulebook/rulebook.json:

{
  "version": "6.0.0",
  "mode": "full",
  "features": {
    "gitHooks": true,
    "templates": true,
    "parallel": true,
    "smartContinue": true
  }
}

Key files generated by Rulebook:

File	Purpose
AGENTS.md	Team-shared, tool-agnostic AI rules (regenerated on update)
AGENTS.override.md	Your project overrides (survives updates)
CLAUDE.md	Claude Code entry point with @imports
.claude/rules/	Path-scoped rules (language-specific + always-on)
.claude/settings.json	The quality-enforcement hook + permissions for Claude Code
.rulebook/tasks/	Active task directories
.rulebook/STATE.md	Machine-written live status

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Documentation

Full documentation in /docs:

• Usage Examples - end-to-end flows for every workflow
• Getting Started
• Best Practices

See the full CHANGELOG for version history.

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