A document with the permanent rules of a recurring task, in which every rule appears exactly once and hard rules are kept apart from guidance.
Other documents point to the rules file instead of repeating the same rule. The rules are divided into a few hard rules, where a single breach can do real harm, and guidance, which leaves room with a reason and an allowed exception. Under every hard rule stands the guardrail that is in place, or the note “Guardrail missing” with the next step. The file is stored in the project instructions, and after every change you have it checked for contradictions and repeated statements.
Example from Module 8
Planning office [example]: The office manager turns the office handbook and the Friday rules into a rules file. Of six sentences, three are hard rules; politeness, folder names and page count are guidance.
Module 8: “Storing knowledge for good”. In the Werkbank course room, with sign-in.
Related terms
- Hard ruleOne of the few rules where a single breach can do real harm. Everything else is guidance.
- GuardrailA measure that closes off a path to harm, without anyone having to read the rule.
- Project instructionsThe part of a Claude project that tells Claude how to work and that applies in every chat of the project.
- PromptThe instruction you give an AI for one assignment.