a free tool for builders
Keep your AI on your three projects.
Your AI starts everything. This rules file makes it ask before it does. Pick your tool, name your three projects, copy the file: a CLAUDE.md, Cursor rules, AGENTS.md, Copilot or Windsurf file that parks new ideas for a week and finishes before it starts.
# Focus rules
I keep to three projects at a time. Ask me which three if you're not sure.
## Before starting anything new
- Work that clearly belongs to one of these projects: go ahead.
- A new project, repo, app, or a big feature none of them needs: stop and ask me first. Offer four choices: add it to one of my projects, park it for 7 days, swap it for one of my projects, or do it just this once.
## Park ideas, don't build them
- When a new idea comes up mid-task (yours or mine), add one line to `IDEAS.md` with today's date, then carry on with the task.
- Ideas wait 7 days before they get built. If I still want one after a week, I'll ask.
## Finish before starting
- Finish the current task (working, checked, committed) before suggesting the next thing.
- Don't add features, refactors or dependencies I didn't ask for. If one would help, mention it in one line at the end instead.
- When something is done, say so plainly. Don't pitch the next project in the same breath.
<!-- made with nuffo.app/tools/ai-rules-generator · three things is enough -->
Put it in the repo root (or ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md for every project). Already have one? Paste this at the end.
Want it enforced?
Your AI starts everything. Nuffo makes you finish.
A rules file asks. Nuffo’s CLI checks: a hook asks before new work outside your projects, ideas land in your Nuffo list instead of a new folder, and nothing your agent does can touch today’s three. One command, undone with disconnect.
npx @nuffo/cli connect- 1
Pick three projects
The ones you're actually moving this month. Everything else is an idea, and ideas wait. - 2
Drop the file in
Repo root for one project, or your user-level file (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md for Claude Code) for all of them. - 3
Let it ask
When the agent asks “add it to a project, park it, swap, or just this once?”, that's the rule working. Pick, and carry on.
More on why agents sprawl and how to rein them in: when your AI starts too much. The full setup is on nuffo for builders.
Quick answers
What is a CLAUDE.md file?
A plain markdown file Claude Code reads at the start of every session, in your repo root or in ~/.claude/ for all projects. Whatever you write there becomes standing instructions. Cursor (.cursor/rules), Codex (AGENTS.md), Copilot and Windsurf have their own equivalents; this generator writes the right one.
Will my AI actually follow it?
Mostly. Rules files are instructions, not locks: a good agent follows them, and on a long day it can drift. If you want the stop to be real, Nuffo's CLI adds a hook that checks new work against your projects before the agent starts it.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The file is put together in your browser. Nothing you type leaves the page.
Why three projects?
Because an AI can start ten things in an afternoon, and you can finish about three. Three at a time keeps them moving. New ideas wait a week; most fade, the good ones stay warm.
Should I use the gentle or firm version?
Start gentle: the agent asks before anything new. If it keeps sliding into side quests, switch to firm, which tells it not to write code for new work until you've chosen.
