ide-rule

🚀 The AI-Native CLI Generator for IDE Rules

Instantly scaffold .cursorrules, .windsurfrules, and configurations for GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, and more.

Standardize your AI-assisted coding workflow across all major AI IDEs.

English | 中文

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🎯 Why ide-rule?

As AI-powered coding assistants become mainstream, developers face a new challenge: each IDE has its own rule format. Cursor uses .mdc with YAML frontmatter, Windsurf prefers single .windsurfrules files, GitHub Copilot expects Markdown in .github/...

Managing these configurations manually is tedious, error-prone, and wastes valuable development time.

ide-rule solves this by providing:

- ✅ One Command, All IDEs — Generate properly formatted rule files for 7+ AI IDEs
- ✅ Consistent Rule Content — Same base rules, automatically adapted to each IDE's format
- ✅ Project Memory — Optional project_memory.md to persist context across sessions
- ✅ Zero Configuration — Smart defaults with full customization when you need it

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🖥️ Supported AI IDEs

| IDE | Rule Format | Output Path | Special Features |
|-----|-------------|-------------|------------------|
| Cursor | .mdc (Frontmatter) | .cursor/rules/ | Supports globs, alwaysApply, multi-file rules |
| Trae (ByteDance) | .md | .trae/rules/ | Standard Markdown format |
| Windsurf (Codeium) | .windsurfrules | Project root | Single-file merged rules |
| GitHub Copilot | .md | .github/ | Single copilot-instructions.md file |
| Lingma (Alibaba) | .md | .lingma/rules/ | HTML comment metadata support |
| CodeBuddy (Tencent) | .md | .codebuddy/rules/ | Standard Markdown format |
| VS Code (Generic) | .md | .vscode/rules/ | Standard Markdown format |
| Claude Code (Anthropic) | CLAUDE.md | Project root | Single-file project guidance |
| Gemini CLI (Google) | GEMINI.md | Project root | Single-file project guidance |

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✨ Features

- 🎯 Multi-IDE Support — Automatically detects and generates the correct format for your IDE
- 📝 Unified Content Template — Base rule content stays consistent; only the format changes
- 🌍 Internationalization — Built-in support for en-US and zh-CN, auto-detects system locale
- 🔒 Safe File Operations — Never overwrites without --force; creates .bak backups automatically
- 🧩 Extensible Architecture — Easily add custom IDEs, frameworks, and language templates
- ⚡ Interactive CLI — Beautiful prompts guide you through the setup process
- 📦 Zero Dependencies Runtime — Minimal footprint, fast installation

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🚀 Quick Start

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``bash


Global installation (recommended)

npm install -g ide-rule

Or run directly with npx (no install needed)

npx ide-rule
`

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`bash


Start the interactive wizard

ide-rule

Specify language explicitly

ide-rule --lang en-US

Force overwrite existing files (creates .bak backup)

ide-rule --force
`

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The CLI will guide you through:

1. Select your AI IDE — Choose from Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, and more
2. Pick your tech stack — Frontend framework, backend framework, programming language
3. Generate files — Rule files are created in the correct location with proper formatting

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📂 Output Examples

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`
.cursor/rules/
├── base.mdc # Base rules with YAML Frontmatter
├── frontend-react.mdc # Framework-specific rules
└── backend-nest.mdc # Backend-specific rules
`

Sample base.mdc structure:
`yaml
---
description: Base coding rules for AI assistant
globs: ["*/"]
alwaysApply: true
---


Your coding standards here...


`

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`
.windsurfrules # All rules merged into a single file
`

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`
.github/
└── copilot-instructions.md
`

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`
CLAUDE.md # Project root
`

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`
GEMINI.md # Project root
`

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🛠️ Configuration Options

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| Option | IDE | Format |
|--------|-----|--------|
| cursor | Cursor IDE | .mdc with Frontmatter |
| trae | Trae (ByteDance) | .md |
| windsurf | Windsurf (Codeium) | .windsurfrules |
| copilot | GitHub Copilot | .md |
| lingma | Lingma (Alibaba) | .md |
| codebuddy | CodeBuddy (Tencent) | .md |
| vscode | VS Code Generic | .md |
| claudecode | Claude Code (Anthropic) | CLAUDE.md |
| gemini | Gemini CLI (Google) | GEMINI.md |
| custom | Custom IDE | Configurable |

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Frontend Frameworks:
- react | next | vue | nuxt | angular | svelte | custom | none

Backend Frameworks:
- node-express | nest | koa | fastify | custom | none

Programming Languages:
- javascript | typescript | go | python | java | c | c++ | c# | php | ruby | custom

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🏗️ Architecture

`
ide-rule/
├── bin/cli.js # CLI entry point
├── src/
│ ├── ide-adapters.js # IDE-specific configurations
│ ├── formatters.js # Content → IDE format transformers
│ ├── templates.js # Template loading & building
│ ├── scaffold.js # Core scaffolding logic
│ └── prompts.js # Interactive prompts
├── templates/
│ ├── base_rule_content.md # Pure content template
│ └── project_memory_example.md # Memory template
└── locales/
├── en-US.json # English translations
└── zh-CN.json # Chinese translations
`

Design Principles:

1. Content-Format Separation — base_rule_content.md stores pure content without formatting
2. Adapter Pattern — Each IDE has its own configuration (path, extension, formatting rules)
3. Pluggable Formatters — Transform raw content into IDE-specific syntax

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🔒 Backup Strategy

- Default behavior: Skips existing files and shows a warning
- With --force: Creates timestamped .bak files before overwriting
- Example: base.mdc → base.mdc.bak.1702345678

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🧪 Testing

The project maintains >90% test coverage using Jest.

`bash


Run all tests

npm test

Watch mode for development

npm run test:watch

Generate coverage report

npm run test:coverage
``

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. Add new IDE adapters — Support for more AI coding assistants
2. Improve templates — Better default rules and prompts
3. Add language translations — Expand i18n support
4. Report bugs — Open issues for any problems you find

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

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📄 License

ISC © 2024

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🔗 Related Projects

- Cursor — AI-first code editor
- Windsurf — AI code editor by Codeium
- GitHub Copilot — AI pair programmer
- Claude Code — Anthropic's agentic coding tool
- Gemini CLI — Google's AI-powered CLI tool

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_{Built with ❤️ for the AI-assisted development community}