{"slug": "show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents", "title": "Show HN: Manage coding norms across your AI agents", "summary": "Norms, a new open-source tool, lets developers define coding rules once in Markdown and sync them across AI coding agents, generating rule files for AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursor/rules/norms.mdc, and .github/copilot-instructions.md. The tool, installable via curl or PowerShell, supports commands like norms init, propose, sync, and check, and is designed to ensure all coding agents follow consistent repo-level instructions.", "body_md": "Define your coding rules once, store them in Git, and make every coding agent follow them.\n\nNorms stores repo-level instructions as Markdown in `.norms/`\n\n, resolves them, and generates the rule files each coding agent expects.\n\nIn practice, you’ll usually manage norms through your coding agent. After installing Norms and running `norms init`\n\nin your current repo, just tell your agent to add or update a norm. It will write the norm, sync the generated rule files, and follow the updated instructions from then on.\n\nYou can also manage norms directly from the CLI with `norms propose`\n\nand `norms sync`\n\n. And because norms are just Markdown, you can always edit them by hand.\n\nEach norm has a stable id, optional path scopes, and one clear instruction. For example, `.norms/norms/testing/integration.md`\n\n:\n\n```\n---\nid: testing.integration\napplies_to:\n  - \"packages/**\"\n---\n\n# Test behavior\n\nCover user-visible behavior with integration tests.\n```\n\nNorms can encode any reusable instruction you want agents to follow. Because norms are just Markdown, they can also include images, diagrams, links, code snippets, tables, and other supporting context.\n\nFor example:\n\n- “All new API endpoints must include an integration test.”\n- “Use uv for Python dependencies; don’t add requirements.txt.”\n- “Keep React components under 300 lines and move shared state into hooks.”\n- “Every merge request must explain what changed, why, and how it was tested.”\n- “All buttons on this website should glow red like in this picture.”\n\nOn macOS or Linux:\n\n```\ncurl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gsttm/norms/main/install.sh | sh\n```\n\nOn Windows, run PowerShell:\n\n```\nirm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gsttm/norms/main/install.ps1 | iex\n```\n\nBoth installers verify release checksums and optionally install the VS Code extension.\n\n```\ngit clone git@github.com:gsttm/norms.git\ncd norms\nbun install\nbun test\nbun run build\n./dist/norms.js --help\n```\n\nIn a development checkout, invoke Norms through `./dist/norms.js`\n\n. Building does not install the released `norms`\n\ncommand.\n\nNorm Markdown lives in `.norms/norms/`\n\nand `.norms/assets/`\n\nstores referenced files.\n\n`norms sync`\n\ngenerates `AGENTS.md`\n\n, `CLAUDE.md`\n\n, `.cursor/rules/norms.mdc`\n\n, and `.github/copilot-instructions.md`\n\n. Edit `.norms/`\n\n, never generated adapters.\n\n| Command | Purpose |\n|---|---|\n`norms init` |\nInitialize Norms, starter meta-norms, and existing agent instructions. |\n`norms list` |\nList active norms and sources. |\n`norms context [path]` |\nReturn norms applicable to a path. |\n`norms explain <path>` |\nExplain scope matches and declared conflicts. |\n`norms lint [path...]` |\nEmit deterministic context for evaluation by your agent. |\n`norms status` |\nShow sync and Git state. |\n`norms propose` |\nCreate or update a local norm. |\n`norms sync` |\nRestore pinned imports offline and generate agent adapters. |\n`norms sync --update` |\nFetch configured refs and update import pins. |\n`norms check` |\nValidate config, norms, lockfile, and adapters. |\n`norms review` |\nCommit, push, and open a GitHub or GitLab review. |\n\nAdd `--json`\n\nfor machine-readable output.\n\nNorms currently outputs only `AGENTS.md`\n\n, `CLAUDE.md`\n\n, `.cursor/rules/norms.mdc`\n\n, and `.github/copilot-instructions.md`\n\n.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents", "canonical_source": "https://github.com/gsttm/norms", "published_at": "2026-08-30 22:16:23+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-30 22:51:51.742077+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-agents", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Norms", "Git", "VS Code", "GitHub", "GitLab"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-manage-coding-norms-across-your-ai-agents.jsonld"}}