Vibe Coding AI Rules

The Ultimate AI Coding Ruleset for Windsurf, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cline, Codex, Zed AI, Gemini CLI & more

"Context is King. AI agents are only as good as the rules you give them."

Production-ready rules, templates, and best practices for AI-assisted development. One repository, all major AI IDEs covered.

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Quick Start: Pick Your IDE

Fastest approach: Copy AGENTS.md to your project root and run ./scripts/symlink-setup.sh to create symlinks for all IDEs at once.

Universal: The AGENTS.md Standard

AGENTS.md is the emerging universal standard for AI coding assistant configuration, backed by OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Cursor, and Sourcegraph.

One file, all IDEs:

# Copy the template
cp templates/agent-template.md AGENTS.md
# Customize for your project, then:
./scripts/symlink-setup.sh
# Creates: .windsurfrules, .cursorrules, CLAUDE.md, .clinerules, GEMINI.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md
# Codex, Zed AI read AGENTS.md natively — no symlink needed

IDEs that read AGENTS.md natively: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Codex, Zed AI, Gemini CLI, Aider.

What's Inside

vibe-coding-ai-rules/
├── README.md                          # You are here
├── AGENTS.md                          # Universal standard (copy to your project)
├── LICENSE                            # MIT License
├── CONTRIBUTING.md                    # How to contribute
│
├── docs/                              # Knowledge base
│   ├── best-practices.md             # Comprehensive agentic coding guide
│   ├── security-rules.md             # Security patterns for AI-generated code
│   ├── performance-rules.md          # Performance optimization patterns
│   ├── testing-rules.md              # Testing standards and patterns
│   ├── error-handling.md             # Error handling patterns and standards
│   ├── logging-rules.md             # Logging standards and best practices
│   ├── api-design.md                # API design conventions (REST, RFC 7807)
│   ├── migration-guide.md            # Migrate between IDE configurations
│   ├── vibe-coding-overview.md       # Quick reference cheat sheet
│   └── ide-comparison.md             # Feature comparison of all 10 IDEs
│
├── templates/                         # Universal templates (tool-agnostic)
│   ├── AGENTS.md                     # Universal template
│   ├── agent-template.md             # Customizable template with placeholders
│   └── agent-example.md              # Real-world "FocusFlow" example
│
├── ide-specific/                      # One folder per IDE
│   ├── windsurf/                     # Windsurf config + examples
│   ├── cursor/                       # Cursor .mdc rules + examples
│   ├── github-copilot/               # Copilot instructions + examples
│   ├── claude-code/                  # CLAUDE.md + .claude/rules/ + examples
│   ├── cline/                        # .clinerules single + multi-file + examples
│   ├── codex/                        # AGENTS.md + examples
│   ├── zed/                          # .rules + examples
│   ├── gemini-cli/                   # GEMINI.md + examples
│   ├── aider/                        # conventions.md + .aider.conf.yml
│   └── continue/                     # .continue/rules/*.md
│
├── prompts/                           # AI prompts for customization
│   ├── adapt-rules-prompt.txt        # Generate rules for ANY IDE from project info
│   └── project-analyzer-prompt.txt   # Analyze codebase and auto-generate rules
│
└── scripts/
    └── symlink-setup.sh              # Create IDE symlinks from AGENTS.md

Deep Dives

Core Principles

These principles are embedded in all IDE-specific rule files:

Customization

Two ways to generate rules for your project:

1. AI Adaptation Prompt: Fill in your project details and let AI generate IDE-specific configs

   Use: prompts/adapt-rules-prompt.txt
   

2. Project Analyzer: Point AI at your existing codebase to auto-generate rules

   Use: prompts/project-analyzer-prompt.txt
   

IDE Support Matrix

Coming from the old Windsurf Global Rules?

If you've been using our original global_rules.md and .windsurfrules — they're still here, now as part of a much bigger toolkit. You'll find the original Windsurf rules as a ready-to-use example in ide-specific/windsurf/examples/, alongside new templates that work across all 10 IDEs.

For the thinking behind this approach, check out these articles:

• Agent Harness: Warum 90% der KI-Agenten scheitern — Why structure and guardrails matter more than the model
• Masterprompt for AI Coding: Der ultimative System-Prompt — How to craft system prompts that actually guide AI agents

Origin

This repository merges and supersedes content from two sources:

• vibe-coding-ai-rules — Windsurf-focused global and project rules
• agentic-coding-rulebook — Universal AGENTS.md templates and best practices

The result: one comprehensive resource covering all major AI coding assistants.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Ways to contribute:

• Share production-ready rule examples
• Add support for new IDEs or frameworks
• Improve existing templates with real-world learnings
• Report issues or suggest enhancements

License

MIT — Use freely in personal and commercial projects.

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Built by Obviousworks

This repo is maintained by Obviousworks — we help dev teams ship better software with AI.

Everything in this repository reflects what we teach and implement with real teams: effective agent harness structures, production-grade rule systems, and development processes designed around AI from the ground up.

In our AI Developer Bootcamp we work hands-on with teams to build exactly this — from writing quality AI coding rules to setting up a complete agentic development workflow that actually scales. And in the Agentic Coding Hackathon you get to put it all into practice: build real projects with AI agents in one intensive day, guided by our engineering team.

If your team writes code with AI and wants to do it properly:

• AI Developer Bootcamp — hands-on training for dev teams
• Agentic Coding Hackathon — build real projects with AI agents in one day
• Agent Harness: Why 90% of AI agents fail (and how to fix it)
• obviousworks.ch