1 min lesson
Encoding the rules close to the repo
Show why this lesson detail matters: "A rule that's too broad is worse than no rule."
Step 1 of 3
The governing principle is proximity. The closer a rule lives to the code it governs, the more reliably it's applied and the easier it is to review. Three places to put team intent sit on the ladder below; the fourth is shared skills, the named workflows anyone on the team can invoke. All of it is a file in the tree, so it goes through the same review as any code change.
Interactive diagram. Tab through its regions; each focused region shows its detail in the panel below.
diagram: rule-proximity-ladder
Scope narrows as a rule moves closer to the code: broad always-on AGENTS.md at the top, path-scoped Project Rules in the middle, .cursorignore subtracting reach at the bottom.