Give Your AI Assistant a Website Rulebook

When a business hires a person, it explains how the work should be done. AI-assisted website work benefits from the same clarity. A short project rulebook can preserve the expectations that otherwise get repeated in every conversation.

The rulebook is guidance, not a substitute for actual account permissions. It also does not guarantee that every product automatically reads the same file.

Write rules that change behavior Start with the project identity, source location, and production domain. Explain which facts are authoritative and which changes need review. Identify the build and publishing process.

Useful rules are concrete: preserve existing URLs unless a redirect is planned; do not invent testimonials; keep client projects separate; report a deployment failure as a failure. “Make everything amazing” is not an operating instruction.

Keep business facts separate Policies, prices, hours, and service areas may change more often than development conventions. Put them in an appropriate content source and point to it.

If the assistant finds conflicting information, it should identify the conflict rather than selecting whichever version makes the task easier. Date-sensitive content needs particular care.

Make completion measurable Describe the evidence expected at the end: changed files, relevant checks, deployment status, and a live page inspection when publication is requested.

A rulebook should prevent a common failure: treating an intention or a draft as proof that work happened. It should also explain how incomplete work is recorded for the next person.

Test the instructions Ask the assistant to perform a small task and inspect its behavior. Did it read the rulebook? Did it stay within scope? Did it identify missing information?

Revise instructions when they cause confusion. Keep a history of important changes and remove contradictions from the current operating summary.

The strongest rulebook is short enough to use and specific enough to matter. It helps the business keep its standards as tools, developers, and projects evolve.

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