Scenario: Cratis maintainer

You contribute to a Cratis framework or product repository instead of building an application on it. The framework-contributor rules apply; the application vertical-slice rules do not.

Configure the repository

Use the managed installer with a cratis/engineering/<language> profile for each language the repository contains. Add cratis/documentation when it has documentation, and a product profile when you also want that product’s skills:

cratis ai install \
  --harnesses claude,codex,copilot,cursor,opencode,pi \
  --profiles cratis/engineering/csharp,cratis/engineering/typescript,cratis/documentation,cratis/arc \
  --languages csharp,typescript

A product profile such as cratis/arc on its own brings skills but neither the engineering nor the application rules. See Choose Cratis AI profiles.

Start the agent from the repository root so it reads AGENTS.md, the installed Cratis rules, and the repository’s own guidance.

Keep repository guidance local

Put product-specific or confidential guidance in the owning repository, in .cratis/ai/rules/project.md and its concern files. Add your own skills under .cratis/ai/skills/ with names that do not start with cratis-. The managed manifest records only the files Cratis installed, so your additions survive update and uninstall.

Generalize reusable guidance before proposing it to Cratis/AI, and leave private product facts out of the shared corpus.

Use a native plugin for one harness

A maintainer who works in one harness on their own machine can install the cratis marketplace plugin (skills only) or @cratis/pi instead. Neither installs the engineering rules into the repository for the rest of the team.

See Use AI as a Cratis maintainer for the complete workflow.