/setup-rules
Generate project rules and document your development environment.
Run /setup-rules to explore your project structure, discover your conventions and undocumented patterns, update project documentation, and document your MCP servers. This is how Pilot adapts to your project — not the other way around. Run it once initially, then any time your codebase changes significantly.
$ pilot
> /setup-rules
What /setup-rules Does
12 phases:
| Phase | Action |
|---|---|
| 0 | Load reference guidelines, recommended directory structure, error handling |
| 1 | Read existing rules (including nested subdirectories), detect structure and path-scoping. Also detects CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md |
| 2 | Migrate unscoped assets to {slug}-prefixed names |
| 3 | Quality audit against best practices (size, specificity, path-scoping enforcement) |
| 4 | Explore codebase with Probe CLI, CodeGraph, and Grep to find patterns |
| 5 | Compare discovered vs documented patterns |
| 6 | Sync project rule, nested directories, and generate rules README. Migrates CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md content into modular rules |
| 7 | Sync MCP server documentation |
| 8 | Discover new rules, place in correct directory by scope |
| 9 | Cross-check: validate references, README, path-scoping |
| 10 | Sync rules back to AGENTS.md if it exists (always asks first; never created if absent). User-authored sections preserved |
| 11 | Report summary of all changes made |
When to Run /setup-rules
- After installing Pilot in a new project
- After making significant architectural changes
- When adding new MCP servers to
.mcp.json - Before starting a complex
/spectask on an unfamiliar codebase - After onboarding to a project you didn't write
Creating skills
Use /create-skill to create workflow skills — /setup-rules focuses exclusively on rules and MCP documentation.