Merge Rules Skill | Agent Skills

Merge Rules

Merges .claude/rules/ from multiple projects into a unified portable rule set (.md + .examples.md). Promotes .local.md patterns that appear across a threshold of projects by converting them to Principles format. Merges .examples.md files alongside rule files.

Usage

/merge-rules                    # Merge using config file
/merge-rules --config <path>    # Merge using specified config file
/merge-rules --dry-run          # Show what would be merged without writing

Configuration

Config file search order:

--config <path> argument
.claude/merge-rules.local.md (project-level)
~/.claude/merge-rules.local.md (user-level)

File format: YAML frontmatter only (no markdown body), same convention as extract-rules.local.md.

---
# Source projects (each must have extract-rules output)
projects:
  - ~/projects/frontend-app
  - ~/projects/backend-api
  - ~/projects/shared-lib

# Output directory (default: .claude/rules/)
output_dir: .claude/rules/

# Rules directory within each project (default: .claude/rules/)
# Corresponds to extract-rules' output_dir setting
rules_dir: .claude/rules/

# Threshold for promoting .local.md patterns (default: 0.5 = majority)
# Examples: 3 projects → 2/3 needed, 4 projects → 3/4, 5 projects → 3/5
promote_threshold: 0.5

# Report language (default: ja)
language: ja
---

Processing Flow

Step 1: Load Configuration

Search for config file (see search order above)
- If not found: Error "No config file found. Create .claude/merge-rules.local.md or specify with --config."
Parse YAML frontmatter, apply defaults for omitted fields
- language resolution order: Skill config → Claude Code settings (~/.claude/settings.json → language field) → default ja
Validate:
- projects must have at least 2 entries
- Each project path must exist and contain rules_dir
- Error with clear message if validation fails

Step 2: Collect Rule Files

For each project:

Find all .md, .local.md, and .examples.md files under {path}/{rules_dir}/ (recursive)
Categorize:
- languages/*.md → portable principles (always merge). If the file also contains ## Project-specific patterns (hybrid format from split_output: false), treat patterns as promotion candidates (same as .local.md)
- frameworks/*.md → same as above
- integrations/*.md → same as above
- languages/*.local.md → promotion candidate
- frameworks/*.local.md → promotion candidate
- integrations/*.local.md → promotion candidate
- languages/*.examples.md → example file (merge with rules)
- frameworks/*.examples.md → example file (merge with rules)
- integrations/*.examples.md → example file (merge with rules)
- project.md → skip (inherently project-specific)
- project.examples.md → skip (inherently project-specific)
Parse each file: extract YAML frontmatter (paths:) and body sections (## Principles, ## Project-specific patterns, ## Principles Examples, ## Project-specific Examples)

Step 3: Normalize Similar File Names

Before merging, group files that refer to the same concept but have different names. This applies to .md, .local.md, and .examples.md files — a .md and its corresponding .local.md and .examples.md share the same normalization (e.g., rails-controller.md, rails-controller.local.md, and rails-controller.examples.md are normalized together with their rails-controllers.* variants).

Detect similar file names within the same directory (e.g., rails-controller.md vs rails-controllers.md, rails-model.md vs rails-models.md)
- Singular/plural variants (e.g., controller / controllers)
- Minor naming differences for the same concept (use AI judgment based on file content and paths: frontmatter overlap)
For each group of similar files, select a canonical name:
- Prefer the name used by the majority of projects
- If tied, prefer the name matching extract-rules' layered framework convention (e.g., <framework>-<layer>)
Treat grouped files as the same file for subsequent merge steps (Step 4 and Step 5)
Report normalized groups in the summary (e.g., "rails-controller.md + rails-controllers.md → rails-controllers.md")

Step 4: Merge Portable Rules (.md)

Design note: Once a pattern is promoted to a Principle (via Step 5), it becomes a permanent org-level rule. Subsequent merge-rules runs will preserve it through Step 4's principle deduplication, regardless of whether the original .local.md pattern still meets the promotion threshold. To demote or remove a promoted Principle, manually edit the org rules output.

For each unique (normalized) file name across projects (e.g., languages/typescript.md, integrations/rails-inertia.md):

Collect all versions from projects that have this file (including normalized variants)
Merge ## Principles sections:
- Deduplicate by principle name (text before parenthetical hints)
- Union hints from all projects for the same principle
- If same principle name but clearly different meaning → keep both, flag in report (see Conflict Handling)
- Preserve unique principles from any project
Merge paths: frontmatter: union of all path patterns, deduplicate
If file exists in only 1 project, include as-is

Step 5: Promote .local.md Patterns to Principles

For each normalized category (e.g., languages/typescript, frameworks/rails-controllers, integrations/rails-inertia):

Collect ## Project-specific patterns from all projects — from .local.md files and from hybrid .md files that contain this section (see Step 2)
Deduplicate against existing Principles: Exclude patterns whose description (text after -) semantically matches an existing principle name in the corresponding .md output (from Step 4). Use AI judgment for semantic equivalence (case-insensitive, synonyms). This prevents self-amplification when .local.md contains patterns previously promoted by older versions
Match remaining patterns by inline code signature (backtick portion before -)
- Use AI judgment to determine semantic equivalence (e.g., useAuth() and useAuth() → { user, login, logout } refer to the same pattern)
Count occurrences per pattern across projects
Calculate threshold: pattern must appear in more than len(projects) * promote_threshold projects (i.e., strict majority when threshold = 0.5)
Convert to Principles format and append to ## Principles in the corresponding normalized .md output:
- Signature format: `signature` - description → Principles format: Description (simplified signature)
- The description becomes the principle name, the function/type name from the signature becomes the hint
- Examples:
  - `useAuth() → { user, login, logout }` - auth hook interface → Auth hook interface (useAuth)
  - `clean_bracket_params(:keyword)` - WAF付加のブラケット除去 → WAF付加のブラケット除去 (clean_bracket_params)
  - `RefOrNull<T extends { id: string }> = T | { id: null }` - nullable refs → Nullable refs (RefOrNull<T>)
- Apply Step 4's principle deduplication to the converted principles (skip if same principle name already exists)
Patterns below threshold → discard (listed in report for reference)

Step 5.5: Merge Examples (.examples.md)

For each normalized .examples.md file group:

Collect all versions from projects that have this file (including normalized variants)
Principles Examples: Merge by section heading (e.g., ### FP only)
- Same principle heading across projects → adopt the most detailed example, or merge Good/Bad from different projects
- If Good/Bad contrast exists in one project but not another → adopt from the project that has it
- Deduplicate identical examples
Promoted pattern examples: For patterns promoted in Step 5, include their examples under ## Principles Examples
- Use the same semantic equivalence judgment as Step 5 (matching by inline code signature with AI judgment) to link ### example headings to promoted patterns — do not rely solely on exact heading match
- ### title uses the converted Principle name (from Step 5), not the original signature
- Include the full original signature as a Good example showing usage
- Discard examples for patterns below threshold (same as the pattern itself)
Output .examples.md file structure:

# <Category> Rules - Examples

## Principles Examples

### <Principle name>
**Good:**
```<lang>
<example>

Bad:

<example>


- `###` titles must match the corresponding rule name in the merged output `.md` file. Do not rephrase
- No `paths:` frontmatter (prevents auto-loading)
- If no examples exist for any merged rule, skip generating the `.examples.md` file

### Step 6: Write Output

1. Check output directory:
   - If `--dry-run`: skip writing, show planned file list with contents summary, then go to Step 7
   - If exists and has files: warn and ask for confirmation before overwriting
   - If not exists: create with `mkdir -p`
2. Write merged files preserving directory structure:
   - `languages/<lang>.md`
   - `languages/<lang>.examples.md` (if examples exist)
   - `frameworks/<framework>.md`
   - `frameworks/<framework>.examples.md` (if examples exist)
   - `integrations/<framework>-<integration>.md`
   - `integrations/<framework>-<integration>.examples.md` (if examples exist)
   - Only `.md` and `.examples.md` files (no `.local.md` in output)
3. Output file format:

```markdown
---
paths:
  - "**/*.ts"
  - "**/*.tsx"
---
# TypeScript Rules

## Principles

- Immutability (spread, map/filter/reduce, const)
- Type safety (strict mode, explicit annotations, no any)
- Auth hook interface (useAuth)

Output .md contains only ## Principles (promoted patterns are converted and included here)
Omit ## Principles section if no principles exist for this category
If a corresponding .examples.md was generated, append a reference section at the end:
```
## Examples
When in doubt: ./<name>.examples.md
```

Step 7: Report Summary

Display report using the project's directory name (last path component) as label. Report headers are always in English.

# Merge Rules Report

## Sources
- frontend-app (3 files)
- backend-api (2 files)
- shared-lib (4 files)

## File Name Normalization
- `rails-controller.md` + `rails-controllers.md` → `rails-controllers.md`
- `rails-model.md` + `rails-models.md` → `rails-models.md`

## Merge Results
| File | Sources | Principles | Promoted to Principles | Examples |
|------|---------|------------|------------------------|----------|
| languages/typescript.md | 3/3 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| frameworks/react.md | 2/3 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| integrations/rails-inertia.md | 2/3 | 2 | 0 | 2 |

**Principles** = total including promoted. **Examples** = total `###` entries in the output `.examples.md`.

## Promoted to Principles
- `useAuth()` → Auth hook interface (useAuth) - 3/3 projects
- `pathFor() + url()` → Path helpers (pathFor, url) - 2/3 projects

## Below Threshold (reference)
- `useCustomHook()` (typescript) - 1/3 (frontend-app only)
- `ApiClient.create()` (typescript) - 1/3 (backend-api only)

## Skipped
- project.md x3 (project-specific, skipped)

Conflict Handling

Same principle, different hints: Union all hints, deduplicate
Same principle name, different meaning: Keep both, flag in report for human review
Same category, different paths: Union all path patterns
Contradicting principles: Keep both, report as conflict for human review

Agent Skills: Merge Rules

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