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AI agents

Rules and decisions for agents

See how your AI agent reads project rules before work and saves your decisions, so every session starts with the same context.

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An agent that remembers your house rules#

An AI agent starts every session without memory. Rules and decisions fix that. A rule is guidance the agent should follow, such as "Every checkout control must work with a keyboard". A decision is a choice your team made and why, such as "Reports use the shop time zone".

You keep both as pages in the Memory Drawer. This page explains how agents read and write them. The Memory Drawer page explains how you mark pages as rules and decisions yourself.

How an agent reads them#

When an agent starts work on a card, it asks Sprintree for the card's context with the get_work_context tool. One answer gives it the card, its parent chain, its description, open blockers, acceptance criteria and the rules that apply. These rules are of two kinds.

  • Always-on rules. Rules marked Apply to every task reach the agent on every card.
  • Linked rules. Other rules and decisions reach it when the card, or one of its parents, links to the page.

An agent can also list the whole drawer at any time with get_project_rules, to read rules before it plans work.

Rule text is guidance, not a command. If your own words to the agent disagree with a rule, your words win.

How an agent writes them#

You rarely need to open Pages to create a rule. Say it to your agent:

  • "From now on, always run the linter before committing."
  • "We decided to keep the old export format until March."

The agent saves the first as a rule and the second as a decision, then sends you the link. Open the page to check the wording. Edit it like any page.

In Claude Code, the Sprintree plugin reminds the agent to save a decision after you answer one of its questions in the terminal. An answered agent question on a card can also become a decision with Save as decision.

Check what your agent sees#

  1. Ask your agent, "Which rules apply to WEB-12?" It reads the card context and lists them.
  2. Compare with the page list in Pages, filtered by Rules or Decisions.
  3. If a rule is missing, check that it has the kind Rule and, for a rule that should apply everywhere, that Apply to every task is on.

Tips and common mistakes#

  • Keep each rule short and about one thing. A long list is easy to ignore.
  • Include the reason in a decision. The agent, and the next teammate, will respect it more.
  • Rules and decisions have restricted access. Invited members can read them. A visitor who joins a public project does not.
  • A rule can look right and still fail if it is vague. "Write good tests" is weaker than "Each bug fix adds a failing test first".
  • Do not put secrets in a rule. Anyone who reads the page and every agent connected to the account can see it.