Prompting
Put project conventions and personal preferences in INSTRUCTIONS.md — the agent follows them every time.
Customize agent behavior with project instructions
Create .neox/INSTRUCTIONS.md or NEOX.md in your project root and write down what you expect from the agent:
# Project Instructions
## Code style
- TypeScript strict mode, no any
- Use vitest for tests
- Functional React components
## Don't
- Never run git commit automatically — I review manually
- Ask before installing new dependencies
## Project context
This repository is for...A card in the timeline lists which instruction files were loaded. Save your edits and the next message uses them — no restart needed. Projects that already have an AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md work as is — see Rules for the lookup order.
Keep it under 300 lines; with longer files the agent tends to miss key items. Move specific workflows into Skills instead.
Project instructions vs skill instructions
| Scenario | Use |
|---|---|
| General project rules to follow every time | .neox/INSTRUCTIONS.md |
| An SOP for one specific workflow (active only while running it) | Skill |
| Personal preferences across projects | ~/.neox/INSTRUCTIONS.md |
For more on Skills, see the skills guide.