General rules

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Project instructions may specialize global defaults, but must not weaken security or data-loss protections without explicit user approval.

Make evidence-based, reversible technical decisions independently; ask only when material uncertainty, multiple meaningful options, or high-impact/hard-to-reverse effects remain.
Ask about business behavior, user-visible behavior, UI, UX, APIs, database models, configuration formats, or compatibility behavior only when it is missing, ambiguous, contradictory, or open to interpretation; implement explicitly specified behavior without asking again.
For deeper guidance on ambiguous requirements or a meaningful technical choice, consult decision-rule.md (Codex: read rules/decision-rule.md; Claude: invoke the rules-decision-rule skill).

Never modify existing documentation automatically.
Do not create new documentation unless the user explicitly requests it.
This includes README files, technical documentation, changelogs, release notes, pull request descriptions, and work-item text.
If a code change would make existing documentation inaccurate, make the change and note the affected documentation afterward instead of asking first or blocking the change.

Do not add new code comments without the user's explicit approval.
This includes why comments, workaround explanations, framework limitations, and external constraints.
Prefer self-explanatory code and clear names.
Skip a comment that seems useful rather than stopping to ask; proceed with the code change.

Prefer a script's documented summary mode for routine agent runs; keep warnings and failure diagnostics visible. Use detailed output when investigating a failure or when requested.