🤖 AI Rules Manager
Centralized rule management for multiple AI tools - One source of truth for all your AI assistants
Español: README.es.md
🎯 The Problem
Modern development uses multiple AI tools, each with their own configuration files:
- Cursor with
.cursorrules
- GitHub Copilot with
.github/copilot-instructions.md
- Windsurf with
.windsurfrules
- Cline with
.clinerules
- Aider with
.aider.conf.yml
- Claude with
CLAUDE.md
- And more...
This creates:
- ❌ Rule duplication across files
- ❌ Desynchronization between tools
- ❌ Maintenance nightmare in large projects
✅ The Solution
AI Rules Manager provides:
✨ Single Source of Truth: Define rules once in Ai_Rules.md
✨ Auto-Detection: Automatically finds existing rule files
✨ Smart Sync: Synchronize to one or all AI tools
✨ Visual Control Panel: Manage everything from a beautiful UI
✨ Rule Templates: Insert pre-made rules for common scenarios
✨ Multi-language: Full support for English and Spanish
🚀 Key Features
🎨 Visual Control Panel
- Web-based UI integrated into VS Code
- One-click actions for all operations
- Inline editor for quick rule edits
- Collapsible sections for clean workspace
- Language selector (English/Spanish)
📚 Rule Template System
- Pre-built templates organized by category:
- General (Clean Code, Performance, etc.)
- Frontend (React, CSS, Accessibility)
- Backend (REST APIs, Databases, Auth)
- Testing (Unit, Integration, E2E)
- Bilingual content (English & Spanish)
- Quick insertion with preview
🔍 Intelligent Scanning
- Automatically detects rule files in your project
- Identifies which AI tool uses each file
- Shows sync status (✅ synced, ⚠️ outdated, ❌ missing)
- Integrated TreeView in file Explorer
- Visual icons for each AI tool
- Click to open files
- Real-time status indicators
🔄 Automatic Synchronization
- Hard sync (complete copy) of content
- Auto-generated headers in target files
- Confirmation before overwriting
- Metadata tracking in
.vscode/ai-rules.json
🌐 Multi-language Support
- Auto-detection of VS Code language
- Manual selector in Control Panel footer
- Localized UI (all text translates instantly)
- Localized templates (inserts in selected language)
📦 Installation
From VS Code Marketplace (Recommended)
- Open VS Code
- Go to Extensions (
Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X)
- Search for "AI Rules Manager"
- Click Install
From Source (Development)
git clone https://github.com/ikaladev/ai-rules.git
cd ai-rules-manager
npm install
npm run compile
Then press F5 to open in Extension Development Host.
🎯 Quick Start
Method 1: Using Control Panel (Recommended)
Open Control Panel
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → AI Rules: Open Control Panel
Create source file
- Click "Create Ai_Rules.md" button
- Or click "View Existing Rules" if file already exists
Edit your rules
- Use the inline editor in the panel, or
- Edit
Ai_Rules.md directly in your editor
Insert templates (Optional)
- Click "📚 Insert Template"
- Choose category (General, Frontend, Backend, Testing)
- Select template
- Content inserts at cursor position
Synchronize
- Click "Sync All Rules" to update all AI tools
- Or "Sync Specific AI" for individual tools
Method 2: Using Command Palette
Create source file
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → AI Rules: Create Ai_Rules.md
Edit your rules in Ai_Rules.md:
# 🤖 AI Rules
## Code Style
- Use TypeScript
- Document with JSDoc
- Prefer clean code
## Tech Stack
- Node.js + TypeScript
- VS Code
- Git
Synchronize
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → AI Rules: Sync All Rules
✨ Done! Your rules are now in:
.cursorrules.github/copilot-instructions.md.windsurfrules.clinerules- And all others...
| AI Tool |
Expected File |
Description |
| 🎯 Cursor |
.cursorrules |
Rules for Cursor Editor (chat & Composer) |
| 🐙 GitHub Copilot |
.github/copilot-instructions.md |
Project-specific instructions |
| 🏄 Windsurf |
.windsurfrules |
Cascade rules for Windsurf (Codeium) |
| 🤖 Cline |
.clinerules |
Rules for Cline autonomous agent |
| ⚙️ Aider |
.aider.conf.yml |
Configuration for Aider CLI |
| 📋 Aider Conventions |
CONVENTIONS.md |
Code conventions for Aider |
| 🧠 Claude |
CLAUDE.md |
Instructions for Claude AI |
| 🔮 Generic Agents |
agents.md |
Generic rules for multiple agents |
📸 Screenshots
Control Panel
Beautiful glassmorphism UI with all actions in one place
Inline Editor
Edit Ai_Rules.md without leaving the panel
Template Selector
Insert pre-made rules with one click
See sync status at a glance
⚙️ How It Works
1. Source File
Ai_Rules.md is your single source of truth. All rules defined here.
2. Auto-Detection
The extension scans your workspace and detects:
- If
Ai_Rules.md exists
- Which rule files already exist
- If they are synced or outdated
3. Synchronization
When syncing:
- Reads content from
Ai_Rules.md
- Calculates SHA-256 hash of content
- Generates AI-specific files with auto-generated header
- Saves metadata to
.vscode/ai-rules.json
4. State Tracking
Compares hashes to determine if files are:
- ✅ Synced: Hash matches
- ⚠️ Outdated: Hash differs
- ❌ Missing: File doesn't exist
🛠️ Available Commands
All commands accessible via:
- Control Panel (recommended)
- Command Palette (
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P)
- TreeView context menu
| Command |
Description |
AI Rules: Open Control Panel |
Opens visual control panel |
AI Rules: Create Ai_Rules.md |
Creates source file with template |
AI Rules: View Rules |
Opens Ai_Rules.md if exists |
AI Rules: Consolidate Scattered Rules |
Merges existing files into Ai_Rules.md |
AI Rules: Sync All Rules |
Updates all AI tool files |
AI Rules: Sync Specific AI |
Choose which AI to sync |
AI Rules: Force Sync |
Overwrites ALL without asking |
AI Rules: Scan Project |
Detects existing rule files |
AI Rules: Refresh View |
Updates TreeView status |
AI Rules: Delete All Rules |
Removes all AI files (not Ai_Rules.md) |
📚 Template System
Categories
📋 General
- Basic Rules (naming, functions, architecture)
- Clean Code principles
- Performance optimization
🎨 Frontend
- React/Next.js best practices
- CSS/Styling guidelines
- Accessibility (a11y) rules
⚙️ Backend
- REST API design
- Database management
- Authentication/Authorization
🧪 Testing
- Unit testing guidelines
- Integration & E2E testing
Using Templates
- Open Control Panel
- Expand "Rules Editor" section
- Click "📚 Insert Template"
- Select category
- Select template
- Content inserts at end of editor
Language Note: Templates insert in the currently selected language (English or Spanish).
🌐 Multi-language Support
Features
- ✅ Auto-detects VS Code language on startup
- ✅ Manual language selector in panel footer
- ✅ All UI text translates instantly
- ✅ Templates available in both languages
- ✅ No restart required
Changing Language
- Open Control Panel
- Scroll to footer
- Use "Language / Idioma" dropdown
- Select English or Español
🔧 Development
Requirements
- Node.js 20.x or higher
- VS Code 1.85.0 or higher
Setup
# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/ikaladev/ai-rules.git
cd ai-rules-manager
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile
# Watch mode (recompiles on save)
npm run watch
Testing the Extension
- Open project in VS Code
- Press
F5 to open Extension Development Host
- Open a test workspace
- Test commands from palette or Control Panel
Project Structure
ai-rules-manager/
├── src/
│ ├── extension.ts # Entry point
│ ├── core/
│ │ ├── RuleRegistry.ts # AI tool mappings
│ │ ├── RuleScanner.ts # File detection
│ │ └── RuleSyncService.ts # Synchronization logic
│ ├── ui/
│ │ ├── RuleTreeView.ts # Sidebar TreeView
│ │ └── ConfigPanel.ts # Control Panel WebView
│ ├── templates/
│ │ ├── types.ts # Template interfaces
│ │ ├── general.ts # General templates
│ │ ├── frontend.ts # Frontend templates
│ │ ├── backend.ts # Backend templates
│ │ ├── testing.ts # Testing templates
│ │ └── index.ts # Template exports
│ ├── i18n/
│ │ └── uiTranslations.ts # UI translations (en/es)
│ ├── commands/
│ │ └── index.ts # Command handlers
│ ├── types/
│ │ └── index.ts # TypeScript types
│ └── utils/
│ └── metadata.ts # Metadata handling
├── package.json # Extension config
├── tsconfig.json # TypeScript config
└── README.md # This file
🧪 Testing
See TESTING.md for detailed test cases.
Quick Test
- Create empty folder:
mkdir test-project && cd test-project
- Open in Extension Dev Host
- Open Control Panel
- Create Ai_Rules.md
- Add some rules
- Click "Sync All Rules"
- Check that 8 files were created
- Verify TreeView shows all as ✅ Synced
🤝 Contributing
Contributions are welcome!
How to Contribute
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
- Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
- Push to branch (
git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
- Open a Pull Request
Contribution Ideas
- Add support for more AI tools
- Improve file detection
- Add unit tests
- Improve documentation
- Add more template categories
- Create community template repository
📝 Roadmap
v1.0.0 (Current) ✅
- [x] File scanning
- [x] TreeView with status
- [x] Hard sync synchronization
- [x] 8 AI tools supported
- [x] Metadata tracking
- [x] Visual Control Panel
- [x] Rule Template System
- [x] Multi-language support (en/es)
v1.1.0 (Next Release)
- [ ] Auto file watcher for
Ai_Rules.md
- [ ] Bidirectional synchronization
- [ ] Custom user templates
- [ ] Template preview before insert
- [ ] Diff viewer before overwrite
- [ ] Keyboard shortcuts
v2.0.0 (Future)
- [ ] Intelligent rule merging
- [ ] Per-AI custom templates
- [ ] Rule validation & linting
- [ ] Community template library
- [ ] Import/export configurations
- [ ] Template bundles/presets
🐛 Known Issues
- Extension requires an open workspace
- Does not support multiple workspaces simultaneously
- Hard sync overwrites manual changes (by design)
💡 FAQ
What happens if I manually edit a generated file?
Changes will be overwritten on next sync. Always edit Ai_Rules.md.
Can I have AI-specific rules?
Not in v1.0. Future versions will include intelligent merging and per-AI templates.
Does it work in monorepos?
Yes, detects workspace root.
Yes, works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
No, only files for tools you want to use are generated.
Can I create custom templates?
Not yet, but it's planned for v1.1.0.
How do I change the UI language?
Open Control Panel, scroll to footer, use the language dropdown.
🔧 Troubleshooting
Control Panel doesn't open
- Make sure you have a workspace open (File → Open Folder)
- Try reloading VS Code window (
Cmd/Ctrl + R)
Templates not showing
- Check VS Code Developer Console for errors
- Ensure you're running the latest compiled version
Sync not working
- Verify
Ai_Rules.md exists and has content
- Check file permissions
- Look at Output panel for error messages
Language not changing
- Reload the Control Panel after changing language
- Check that uiTranslations.ts compiled correctly
📄 License
MIT License - see LICENSE for details
👤 Author
ikaladev
⭐ Acknowledgments
Thanks to the VS Code community and all AI tool developers who make this ecosystem possible.
Special thanks to users who provided feedback and feature requests.
