/edikt:guideline:new

Capture a team guideline — a coding standard or best practice that should be consistently followed but doesn't rise to the level of an invariant.

Usage

/edikt:guideline:new all API responses use camelCase keys
/edikt:guideline:new                         ← extracts from current conversation

Guidelines vs invariants

	Invariant	Guideline
Violation	Causes real harm (data loss, security breach, domain corruption)	Breaks consistency, creates tech debt
Enforcement	Non-negotiable	Strong preference
When to capture	Hard rules with consequences	Standards and team conventions

If your rule uses "NEVER" and violation would cause real harm, use /edikt:invariant:new instead.

Two modes

With argument — define from scratch

/edikt:guideline:new all API responses use camelCase keys

edikt creates the guideline with clear language about what it applies to, when to follow it, and any exceptions.

Creates: docs/guidelines/guideline-{slug}.md

No argument — extract from conversation

/edikt:guideline:new

Extracts the last team standard or coding convention discussed in the current conversation.

Template

edikt uses a template to structure the guideline. The template lookup chain:

1. Project override — .edikt/templates/guideline.md (if present)
2. edikt default — built-in template

The default template produces:

# {topic-name}

## Purpose
## Rules            ← compile reads this (MUST/NEVER language)
## Examples
## When NOT to apply

[edikt:directives:start]: #
[edikt:directives:end]: #

The ## Rules section is what compile reads. Each bullet must use MUST or NEVER — soft language ("should", "prefer") is rejected by compile with a warning. See Guidelines for details.

Output

docs/guidelines/
└── guideline-api-response-casing.md

After creating the guideline, edikt automatically runs /edikt:guideline:compile to generate the directive sentinel block. Your new guideline is immediately ready for /edikt:gov:compile.

Natural language triggers

• "let's add a guideline for X"
• "capture this as a team convention"
• "we should always do X"
• "add a coding standard for X"

What's next

• /edikt:guideline:compile — compile into governance directives
• /edikt:guideline:review — review language quality + directive LLM compliance
• Guidelines — what they are, when to use, vs ADRs vs invariants
• Extensibility — manual directives, suppressed directives, template overrides
• /edikt:gov:compile — compile all governance into enforcement files