goldengooseAI coding agent workspace

Configure

Lead Instructions

Where lead instruction files live and how to maintain them.

Lead instructions are short markdown documents that teach your team lead how you want work to be done.

They’re most useful when you:

  • run multi-agent teams,
  • care about consistent quality gates (tests, formatting, PR hygiene),
  • or want predictable communication and safety behavior.

File locations

gg supports two scopes:

  • Global (applies everywhere):
    • $HOME/.agents/gg/lead-readme.md
  • Workspace (repo-specific):
    • <workspace>/.agents/gg/lead-readme.md

Workspace lead instructions let you encode repo-specific rules (“always run bun run check:all before shipping”) without changing your global defaults.

Editing lead instructions

You can edit lead instructions either:

  • in-app (Preferences / Rules), or
  • directly in the lead-readme.md file on disk.

What to put in lead instructions

Strong lead instructions usually include:

  • Definition of done: what “complete” means for your team.
  • Quality gates: tests, typechecks, linters, formatting.
  • Tool safety: when to ask before running installs or destructive commands.
  • Communication norms: how often to report status, when to broadcast vs DM.
  • Repo conventions: naming, structure, commit messages, review expectations.