ai-rules-sync

AI Rules Sync

AI Rules Sync (AIS) — Install, compose, update, and publish native agent assets from multiple Git repositories across all your projects.

AIS is an asset federation toolkit, not a format converter. It keeps your files exactly as they are — skills, rules, commands, agents — and syncs them via symbolic links across every project you work on. Edit once, update everywhere.

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How AIS is Different

AIS	Other tools
Symlinks — upstream changes are instant	Copy files — must re-run to update
One source → many projects	One project at a time
Native assets — no format conversion	Rewrite / re-generate your files
Import → publish → review workflow	One-way consumption only
370 KB, 5 dependencies	Often 10+ MB with deep dependency trees
Git-native — works with any Git remote	Tied to specific registries or APIs

AIS is complementary to format-conversion tools. If you also need cross-tool format conversion, you can use AIS for asset management and another tool for generation — they solve different problems.

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Supported Tools

This table is generated from docs/supported-tools.json via npm run docs:sync-tools.

Tool	rules	skills	commands	agents	AGENTS.md	tools	prompts	instructions
Universal	—	—	—	—	✅	—	—	—
Aider	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Amp	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Antigravity CLI	—	✅	✅	—	—	—	—	—
Augment Code	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—	—
Claude Code	✅	✅	—	✅	✅	—	—	—
Cline	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—	—
CodeBuddy	✅	✅	✅	—	✅	—	—	—
Codex	✅	✅	—	✅	✅	—	—	—
Continue	✅	✅	—	—	—	—	✅	—
Cursor	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—	—
DeepAgents	—	✅	—	✅	✅	—	—	—
DeepSeek	—	✅	—	—	✅	—	—	—
Factory Droid	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—
Gemini CLI	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—
GitHub Copilot	—	✅	—	✅	—	—	✅	✅
Goose	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Hermes Agent	✅	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Junie	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—
Kilo Code	—	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—
Kimi Code	—	✅	—	✅	✅	—	—	—
Kiro	✅	✅	—	✅	—	—	—	—
OpenCode	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	✅	—	—
Pi	—	✅	—	—	✅	—	✅	—
Qwen Code	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—
Trae	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—	—
Warp	✅	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Windsurf	✅	✅	✅	—	—	—	—	—
WorkBuddy	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—
Zed	—	✅	—	—	—	—	—	—

📋 Full directory reference — source paths, modes, suffixes, and documentation links.

Also supports User Mode for personal AI config files.

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Installation

Via npm (Recommended)

npm install -g ai-rules-sync

Via Homebrew (macOS only)

brew tap lbb00/ai-rules-sync https://github.com/lbb00/ai-rules-sync
brew install ais

Verify:

ais --version

Optional: Enable tab completion

ais completion install

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Quick Start

Use assets from a repository

cd your-project

# Add a rule (specify repository URL the first time)
ais cursor add react -t https://github.com/your-org/rules-repo.git

# After first use, omit -t
ais cursor add vue
ais copilot instructions add coding-standards
ais claude skills add code-review

Share your existing assets

# Import a rule from your project into the repository
ais cursor rules import my-custom-rule

# Optionally push to remote
ais cursor rules import my-rule --push

Restore assets (team onboarding / CI)

# Restore all assets from ai-rules-sync.json
ais install

User-level sync (personal AI configs)

# Sync personal configs to $HOME
ais claude md add CLAUDE --user
ais gemini md add GEMINI --user

# Restore on a new machine
ais user install

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Core Concepts

How It Works

Git Repository                    Global Cache                    Your Projects
┌─────────────────┐     clone     ┌──────────────────┐  symlink  ┌──────────┐
│ .claude/skills/ │ ───────────→  │ ~/.config/       │ ────────→ │ projectA │
│ .cursor/rules/  │               │ ai-rules-sync/   │ ────────→ │ projectB │
│ .github/inst... │               │ repos/           │ ────────→ │ projectC │
└─────────────────┘               └──────────────────┘           └──────────┘

1. Clone — AIS clones your asset repositories to a global cache (~/.config/ai-rules-sync/repos/)
2. Symlink — Each project gets symbolic links pointing into the cache
3. Update — When you pull changes in the repo, every project sees them instantly

Three Configuration Layers

File	Scope	Committed to Git
ai-rules-sync.local.json	Private, per-project	No
ai-rules-sync.json	Shared, per-project	Yes
user.json (~/.config/ai-rules-sync/)	Global, per-user	Optional (dotfiles)

Three Core Operations

Command	What it does
ais add	Link an asset from a repository to your project
ais import	Copy an asset from your project into the repository, then replace with symlink
ais install	Restore all symlinks from ai-rules-sync.json (team onboarding, CI)

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Basic Usage

Setup a Repository

# Use an existing remote repository
ais use https://github.com/your-org/rules-repo.git

# Use a local path (for development / testing)
ais use ~/my-rules-repo

# List all configured repositories
ais ls

# Switch between repositories
ais use company-rules
ais use personal-rules

Add Assets to Your Project

cd your-project

# First time: specify repository
ais cursor add react -t https://github.com/org/rules.git

# Subsequent adds (uses current repository)
ais cursor add vue
ais cursor add typescript

# Add with alias (different name in project)
ais cursor add react react-18

# Add from a different repository
ais cursor add coding-standards -t company-rules

# Add as private (saved to ai-rules-sync.local.json)
ais cursor add company-secrets --local

# Add to custom target directory (monorepo)
ais cursor add my-rule -d packages/frontend/.cursor/rules

Import Existing Assets

# Import a rule from your project into the repository
ais cursor rules import my-custom-rule

# Import with custom commit message
ais cursor rules import my-rule -m "Add custom rule"

# Import and push to remote
ais cursor rules import my-rule --push

# Force overwrite if exists in repository
ais cursor rules import my-rule --force

Remove Assets

ais cursor rm react
ais cursor commands rm deploy
ais cursor skills rm code-review

Install from Configuration

# Clone project and restore all assets
git clone https://github.com/team/project.git
cd project
ais install

# Install all entries for a specific tool
ais cursor install
ais claude install

Discover and Install All

# Install everything from current repository
ais add-all

# Install all Cursor rules
ais cursor add-all

# Preview before installing
ais add-all --dry-run

# Filter by tool
ais add-all --tools cursor,copilot

# Interactive mode
ais cursor add-all --interactive

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Tool-Specific Commands

Cursor

ais cursor add react                 # Rule
ais cursor commands add deploy       # Command
ais cursor skills add code-review    # Skill
ais cursor agents add code-analyzer  # Subagent

GitHub Copilot

ais copilot instructions add coding-style
ais copilot prompts add generate-tests
ais copilot skills add web-scraping
ais copilot agents add code-reviewer

Claude Code

ais claude rules add general
ais claude skills add code-review
ais claude agents add debugger
ais claude md add CLAUDE             # CLAUDE.md (project)
ais claude md add CLAUDE --user      # CLAUDE.md (personal)

Codex

ais codex rules add default
ais codex skills add code-assistant
ais codex md add AGENTS --user       # ~/.codex/AGENTS.md

Gemini CLI

ais gemini commands add deploy-docs
ais gemini skills add code-review
ais gemini agents add code-analyzer
ais gemini md add GEMINI --user      # ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md

Other Tools

ais trae rules add project-rules
ais opencode agents add code-reviewer
ais opencode tools add project-analyzer
ais windsurf add project-style
ais windsurf skills add deploy-staging
ais cline add coding
ais cline skills add release-checklist
ais warp skills add my-skill
ais agents-md add .                  # Universal AGENTS.md

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Advanced Features

Multiple Repositories

ais cursor add coding-standards -t company-rules
ais cursor add react-best-practices -t https://github.com/community/rules.git
ais cursor add my-utils -t personal-rules

User Mode (Personal AI Config Files)

ais claude md add CLAUDE --user      # → ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
ais gemini md add GEMINI --user      # → ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md
ais codex md add AGENTS --user       # → ~/.codex/AGENTS.md
ais cursor rules add my-style --user

# Restore on a new machine
ais user install

Dotfiles integration:

ais config user set ~/dotfiles/ai-rules-sync/user.json
ais user install

Repository Lifecycle

# Check whether repositories are behind upstream
ais check

# Preview updates without pulling
ais update --dry-run

# Pull updates and reinstall entries
ais update

# Initialize a rules repository template
ais init

Git Commands

ais git status
ais git pull
ais git push
ais git log --oneline
ais git status -t company-rules

Custom Source Directories

For third-party repositories with non-standard structure:

# CLI parameters (temporary)
ais cursor rules add-all -s custom/rules

# Persistent configuration
ais config repo set-source third-party cursor.rules custom/rules
ais config repo show third-party

Custom Target Directories

# Monorepo: different packages
ais cursor add react-rules frontend-rules -d packages/frontend/.cursor/rules
ais cursor add node-rules backend-rules -d packages/backend/.cursor/rules

Tab Completion

ais completion install
ais cursor add <Tab>              # Lists available rules
ais cursor commands add <Tab>     # Lists available commands

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Configuration Reference

ai-rules-sync.json