Agent Rules from Books
ciembor/agent-rules-books
Agent Rules from Books is a free, MIT-licensed set of rule sets distilled from well-known software books, packaged as 14 skills. Titles include Clean Code, Refactoring, Domain-Driven Design, A Philosophy of Software Design and Release It. Each book comes in three sizes, nano, mini and full, and the skill loads the mini version by default.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- GitHub stars
- 3,024
- Skills in the pack
- 14
- Agents supported
- 3named in the README
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- 1 month ago10 September 2026
- Instruction size
- 1.1k wordsacross all SKILL.md files
How to install Agent Rules from Books
| Agent | Command | Copy |
|---|---|---|
| Any agent | Use --list to see the skills first, or --skill refactoring to install one. | |
| Codex, Claude Code and Cursor | The README links a usage guide covering always-on rules, on-demand skills and scoped rules for each editor. |
Commands as given in the README on 14 October 2026.
What Agent Rules from Books runs on your machine
- Hooks
- None found in the repo.
- Bundled scripts
- None found in the repo.
- Network calls
- None. The skills are Markdown rule files.
- API keys needed
- None.
These are facts read from the repo, not a security rating. Read the files before you install any skill.
What is inside Agent Rules from Books
| Skill | What it makes the agent do |
|---|---|
| clean-code | Rules from Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. |
| clean-architecture | Rules on architecture boundaries and dependencies. |
| refactoring | Rules for safe, small refactoring steps. |
| a-philosophy-of-software-design | Rules on deep modules and reducing complexity. |
| domain-driven-design | Rules from Eric Evans, with matching skills for the Distilled and Implementing books. |
| working-effectively-with-legacy-code | Rules for changing code that has no tests. |
| release-it | Rules for building systems that survive failure in production. |
| designing-data-intensive-applications | Rules on data storage, replication and processing. |
| the-pragmatic-programmer | Rules on everyday craft and habits. |
| code-complete | Rules on construction and code-level quality. |
Ten of the 14 shown. The rest cover Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture and the Refactoring.Guru catalog, among others.
A good fit for
- Teams that want an agent to refactor against named, well-known principles
- Legacy code work that benefits from the Working Effectively with Legacy Code rules
- Architecture reviews that lean on Clean Architecture or Domain-Driven Design
- Tight context budgets, since each book has a nano version
Skip it if
- Anyone who disagrees with these books' schools of thought, since the rules apply them directly
- Loading all 14 at once, because the books overlap and sometimes pull in different directions
- Language-specific style guidance, as the rules are about design principles
How Agent Rules from Books works
Each rule set ships in three versions. Mini is the one the README recommends for most tasks, nano is for very tight context budgets, and full is the complete reference. The skill loads mini and keeps full available for deeper lookups.
The repo also works as plain AGENTS.md or Cursor rules if you prefer always-on guidance to on-demand skills. The README links a page of criticism from Reddit and a compatibility guide for combining books.
- Made by
- ciembor
- Works with
- Claude Code, Codex, Cursor
How much context Agent Rules from Books uses
| All 14 skills | 1,147 words across every SKILL.md file |
|---|---|
| Largest skill | patterns-of-enterprise-application-architecture, 91 words |
| Loaded at start | Only each skill's name and description. The full text loads when a task needs that skill. |
Word counts are measured from the repo every day. Reference files a skill loads on demand are not counted.
Is Agent Rules from Books still maintained?
| Last commit | , 1 month ago |
|---|---|
| Latest release | v0.5, 4 May 2026 |
| Stars gained in 7 days | Shown after 7 days of tracking |
| Stars gained in 30 days | Shown after 30 days of tracking |
| Open issues and pull requests | 6 |
| Forks | 527 |
Tools Agent Rules from Books works with
Questions about Agent Rules from Books
Which version of each book does the skill use?
The mini version by default, with the full file kept as reference material.
Can I use these as always-on rules instead of skills?
Yes. The README says the Markdown files work as AGENTS.md style rules, and its usage guide covers always-on and scoped setups.
Do the rules overlap?
Some do. The repo has a compatibility guide for the books.
Is it free?
Yes. It is MIT licensed.
Sources
- ciembor/agent-rules-books on GitHub
- Agent Rules from Books README
- Refactoring skill
- Agent Rules from Books license
Something wrong or out of date? Email [email protected] with a link to the source. Stats come from the public GitHub API and update every day.
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