Cursor rules, AGENTS.md & agent skills.
Stop rewriting system prompts. Copy battle-tested AGENTS.md, Cursor rules, CLAUDE.md and Claude Code skills (SKILL.md), each configured for a real production architecture.
Not sure which file your tool reads? AGENTS.md vs CLAUDE.md vs .cursorrules, with data from 113 repos
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Questions about rules and skills
Setting up AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, Cursor .mdc, SKILL.md and context boundaries.
What is the purpose of AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md files?
AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md are specialized system prompt guideline files placed in repository roots. They supply AI coding assistants (like Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and AGY) with non-negotiable architectural boundaries, connection pooling rules, framework idioms, and forbidden anti-patterns to prevent hallucinations and maintain codebase consistency.
How do I use these rules in my local development environment?
Copy the generated AGENTS.md into your project root, or drop the .mdc file into .cursor/rules/ for Cursor — both are automatically indexed. Claude Code directly reads CLAUDE.md for project conventions and CLI commands.
What's the difference between AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, and the .mdc file?
AGENTS.md is the open, cross-tool standard read by 30+ agents (Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Jules, and more). CLAUDE.md adds Claude Code-specific CLI commands and conventions. The .mdc file is the modern Cursor Rules format with YAML frontmatter (description, globs, alwaysApply) that replaces the legacy single .cursorrules file.
What is the difference between a rule and an agent skill (SKILL.md)?
Rules (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .mdc) are always-on project instructions loaded from the repository root. An agent skill is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name, description) that agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor load on demand when a task matches its description. Every stack on this page ships in both forms, so you can pin the guidelines globally or let the agent pull them in only when it touches that stack.
How do I install one of these as a Claude Code skill?
Open any rule set and copy the SKILL.md cURL command, or run: curl -s --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md https://stackitfast.com/rules/<slug>/SKILL.md. Claude Code discovers project skills under .claude/skills/ automatically; the same file works in any Agent Skills-compatible tool.
Why are stack-specific rules necessary over generic prompts?
Generic system prompts fail on crucial framework-specific edge cases—such as disabling prepared statements in Supabase transaction poolers (prepare: false), configuring Redis noeviction policies for BullMQ, or enforcing asyncpg pool pre-ping in FastAPI. Stack-specific rules provide verified, battle-tested solutions to real integration gotchas.
Are these rules based on real open-source architectures?
Yes. Every rule set in STACK IT FAST is derived directly from verified production repositories benchmarked in our directory, including Cal.com, PostHog, Supabase Studio, Sentry, Grafana, and Dub.
Need rules for your own constraints?
Take the two-minute survey for a stack matched to real architectures and a scaffolding prompt to start from.