For coding agents

Get going

Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.

Do not invent policy from the blog. Install a thin harness, keep two Priority 0 (P0) fail-closed rules always-on, prove one real task — then stop.

Download Cursor pack Open the 60-minute path

1. 1

   Take the pack

   Unzip cursor-hour-starter.zip or browse packs/cursor-hour/.

2. 2

   Drop .cursor/ into the project

   Project-local. Reload the Cursor window if rules/skills do not appear.

3. 3

   Rename the skill

   Change example-domain-task triggers and proof to the human’s real weekly job.

4. 4

   Keep both Priority 0 (P0) rules always-on

   P0 means fail-closed and always loaded — not optional. The two: no secrets in chat (capture into Bitwarden); human approval before irreversible send/publish. No third always-on rule today.

5. 5

   Sign off one pattern

   One signed-off row with a real failure line in patterns/WORKING-PATTERNS.md.

6. 6

   Freeze a clock + run one task

   Set harness.start to today. Run the skill with its proof checklist — not a plan alone.

While you work

• Prefer skills/rules/patterns on disk over chat folklore.
• Fail closed on secrets and irreversible outbound. Capture via desktop dialog into Bitwarden (Password Manager for humans; Bitwarden Secrets Manager for agent tokens) — never into chat.
• Prefer trash over hard delete — move files to OS/project trash so mistakes stay recoverable (signed pattern, not a third always-on P0).
• File blog sparks in the repo’s blog-inbox.md — do not publish the inbox. Promote at EOW or skip.
• Public shape is locked at v1.0 — see BASELINE.md.

Markdown twin for clones: AGENTS.md · Site home: chopwoodcarrywater.uk