Rules Relay

Rules Relay keeps a folder of Claude Code rule files in step between your computers, through a folder in your own Google Drive. Write a rule once, sync, and every machine you use Claude Code on has it.

Rules Relay is an independent project. It is not made by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Anthropic or Google.

Getting started

1. Install Rules Relay and click its icon in the activity bar.
2. Click Sign In to Google Drive. Your browser opens Google's sign-in page, where you choose your account and allow access to the files Rules Relay creates.
3. Put your rule files (.md) in the synced folder. Open Synced Folder in the view's ... menu takes you there.
4. Click Sync. On your other computers, install Rules Relay, sign in with the same Google account, and click Sync to bring the rules down.

The synced folder is ~/.claude/rules/vs_code_synced on each computer, or rules/vs_code_synced under CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR when that is set. In your Drive it is the vs_code_synced folder at the top level.

The Synced Rules view

• Each rule file is listed with what the next sync would do with it: in sync, changed here, changed in Drive, new on either side, deleted on either side, or changed on both sides. Click a file to open it.
• Title bar buttons: Sync, Pull, Push, and Refresh. The ... menu holds Open Synced Folder, Open Folder in Google Drive, Show Log, Open Setup Guide, and Sign Out.
• Conflict copies appear under the file they belong to. Click one to compare it side by side with the current file. When you have merged what you need, use its check button to delete it.

The status bar shows the same state at a glance: a check when everything is in sync, an upload icon with a count when files are waiting, a warning when something needs attention, and a spinner while syncing. Clicking it opens the view. Local edits update the view straight away, while Google Drive is re-read on Refresh and after every sync.

Every command is also in the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) under Rules Relay, and every file action is logged in the Rules Relay output channel.

How syncing decides what to do

Each computer remembers what every file looked like the last time both sides agreed. That lets it tell which side changed a file, so an edit made on another computer is not overwritten by an older local copy.

• Push sends files you changed locally, including deletions. It leaves changes made in Drive alone and tells you it skipped them.
• Pull is the reverse: it takes changes made in Drive and leaves your local changes alone.
• Sync does both. This is the one to use day to day.
• Both sides edited the same file: the command's own side wins (local for Push and Sync, Drive for Pull). The other version is saved next to the file as name.md.drive-conflict-<time> or name.md.local-conflict-<time>. Those names do not end in .md, so Claude Code does not load them as rules, and they are never synced.
• One side deleted a file that the other side edited: the edit wins and the file comes back.
• Deletions are recoverable. Local files go to the Recycle Bin or Trash, and Drive files go to the Drive trash.

Subfolders are synced too. Google Docs files and shortcuts in the Drive folder are ignored, because they have no plain file contents to download.

Privacy and what Rules Relay can see

Rules Relay asks Google only for access to the files it creates (the drive.file permission) and for your email address, which it shows so you know which account is signed in. It cannot see anything else in your Drive.

Rules Relay has no servers. Your sign-in stays in your operating system's credential store, and your files travel only between your computer and your own Google Drive. Sign Out revokes the sign-in and deletes everything Rules Relay stored on the computer. Do that before uninstalling if you want nothing left behind, because VS Code keeps an uninstalled extension's stored state. The privacy policy has the details.

Because Google limits Rules Relay to the files it created, a file you upload into the Drive folder through the Drive website stays invisible to it. Add new rules through the local folder instead.

Does Claude Code load the synced rules?

Yes. Claude Code's documentation only promises recursive loading for project rules in .claude/rules/, so this was checked by hand on Claude Code 2.1.274. Marker files were placed in three spots, and a fresh session reported which markers it could see:

So files in the synced subfolder load as user-level rules, and conflict copies stay out of context. If a later Claude Code release changes this, run /memory to see which rule files it loaded, then set rulesRelay.localFolder to ~/.claude/rules to sync the rules folder itself.

Settings

Building from source

npm install
npm test          # compiles, then runs the sync-engine tests under Node
npm run package   # produces rules-relay-<version>.vsix

Google requires every app that uses the Drive API to have its own OAuth client, and the client used by the published extension is not in this repository. A build from source therefore needs a client of your own:

1. In the Google Cloud console, create a project and enable the Google Drive API.
2. Under Google Auth Platform, set up the consent screen with an External audience, then Publish app. While an app is in Testing status, Google expires its sign-ins after seven days.
3. Create an OAuth client of type Desktop app and select Download JSON.
4. Either save that file as oauth-client.json in the project root before packaging, so the build carries it, or leave it out and paste the client ID and secret when Sign In asks for them.

oauth-client.json is in .gitignore. A client ID set in rulesRelay.oauthClientId overrides a bundled client, and its secret is kept in VS Code's secret storage.