---
source_keys:
  - apm-docs-site
  - apm-cli-0-28-0-experiments
---

# Creating a new instructions file

Return to `SKILL.md` Step 3 once Step 3 below is done.

## Before touching the filesystem

Confirm, and ask the user for anything missing:

- [ ] The one topic the file covers. Two topics are two files.
- [ ] Which files it governs, as a glob, or that it must load in every session.
- [ ] A kebab-case stem. It becomes the deployed filename.

## Step 1 — Check the stem

Install overwrites a hand-authored file at `.claude/rules/<stem>.md`, `.cursor/rules/<stem>.mdc`, `.windsurf/rules/<stem>.md`, `.kiro/steering/<stem>.md` and `.agents/rules/<stem>.md` without a prompt. List those paths in the consuming project and choose another stem on any hit.

## Step 2 — Scaffold

```bash
bash scripts/new-instructions.sh <name> <path-inside-the-package>
```

The script walks up for a `type:`-bearing `apm.yml`. With none it exits 1 and names `/apm-workflow configure`; run that first, then retry. It never overwrites an existing file.

## Step 3 — Fill in

Replace every `FILL IN:` and delete the template's comments.

- `applyTo`: quoted. Omit it only for a rule that must load in every session, and say so to the user; it costs context at every launch.
- `description`: one line. Write the body as if it were absent, because Claude Code never sees it.
- Body: concrete bullets, one topic, paths in backticks, nothing that assumes another file is loaded. Read `references/content.md` if unsure the content belongs in an instructions file.

For glob syntax or a field question, read `references/schema.md`.