title: Rules (Replaced by Skills) description: Rules have been replaced by Skills and Instructions in Zed.

Rules {#rules}

Rules have been replaced by Skills and Instructions.

Note: Starting in Zed v1.4.0, on-demand Rules and the Rules Library have been replaced by Skills. Skills are the recommended way to package reusable agent instructions.

Use Skills for reusable task instructions that can be invoked by name or selected by the model. Use Instructions for always-on personal and project context.

.rules Files {#rules-files}

Project .rules files remain supported as compatibility project instruction files. See Instructions.

Other instruction filenames are also supported for compatibility with other agents. The first matching file is used:

• .rules
• .cursorrules
• .windsurfrules
• .clinerules
• .github/copilot-instructions.md
• AGENT.md
• AGENTS.md
• CLAUDE.md
• GEMINI.md

Migrating to Skills {#migrating-to-skills}

Existing Rules migrate automatically:

• Non-default Rules become global Skills in ~/.agents/skills/, each with disable-model-invocation: true. They remain user-invocable by slash command or @-mention.
• Default Rules are appended to your global AGENTS.md file (~/.config/zed/AGENTS.md on macOS and Linux, %APPDATA%\Zed\AGENTS.md on Windows).
• Git commit prompt customizations are also appended to the global AGENTS.md file.

Rules Library content is not deleted, so downgrading to an earlier version of Zed leaves your Rules intact.