Groundrule documentation

Choose your path

Who are you?

Every page says who it was written for. Start where you are; the words are the same everywhere, only the depth changes.

01Engineering lead

I decide how we buildWhat Groundrule is, how a rulebook rolls out without breaking anyone's day, and the 30 minutes from sign-up to rules in every repository.Set up Groundrule

02Standard owner

I write and review rulesAdopt packs rule by rule, write your own standards, review what your repos and documents already say, and promote rules with evidence.Review the inbox

03Developer

I write the codeConnect a repository, give every coding agent the same rules, check changes locally and in CI, and propose a rule from your editor.Connect your repository

04Admin and security

I keep it safeMembers and roles, tokens, what is stored and for how long, what is sent to AI and when, and how tenants are kept apart.How Groundrule protects your code

Most read

Six pages that answer most questions

If you read nothing else, read these. Together they take under an hour and cover what a team needs on its first day.

1. 01Everyone·12 minGet startedTen steps from an empty workspace to rules in every repository and checks in CI.
2. 02Everyone·9 minHow Groundrule worksStandards, packs, scopes, stages and proposals: the eleven words the product is built on.
3. 03Standard owners·6 minRollout stagesObserve, Teach, Advise, Enforce: what each stage does in agent files and in checks.
4. 04Developers·8 minCLI quickstartSign in, connect a repository, sync agent files and run your first check.
5. 05Developers·12 minThe rule formatEvery field of a standard, with examples, scope, checks and agent wording.
6. 06Security·7 minAI and your dataWhat is sent to the model, what is removed first, what is kept, and what it costs.

One paragraph, for anyone2 min

Every engineering team has rules: how money is stored, which client calls the payment provider, what never goes in a log. They live in people's heads, a wiki nobody reads and a thousand review comments. Coding agents now write much of the code, and they only follow what they are told. Groundrule gives the team one rulebook: start from maintained packs, import what your repositories, documents and pull-request reviews already say, and review every proposal in an inbox. Each rule then reaches every coding agent as instructions in AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, Cursor and Copilot, and every change is checked against it, locally and in CI. Rules roll out in stages, Observe, Teach, Advise, Enforce, and move forward only when the evidence from your own code says they are ready. AI helps find and write rules, but a person accepts every one.

Read the full explanation The words Groundrule uses