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4. Verify Your First Instruction

You now have a workspace and a registered project. Add a visible rule, check its connection, and confirm your agent can read it.

Ask your agent

Add “Include a brief verification summary when reporting completed work” to the canonical instructions for project example. Preserve existing content, preview project synchronization, and apply it if there are no conflicts. Show the instruction source and verify the native project instruction link.

Edit and synchronize manually

Open the canonical file in your configured editor:

aikito edit instructions example

Alternatively, edit <workspace>/projects/example/AGENTS.md directly. Add:

# Project Instructions

- Include a brief verification summary when reporting completed work.

Save the file, then preview and apply the connection:

aikito sync project example --dry-run
aikito sync project example

With nonempty instructions, Aikito links each registered agent's configured project instruction path to the canonical file. If a repository already owns one of those files, synchronization reports a conflict. Follow the conflict guide to reconcile it before continuing.

Verify the file and the agent

aikito show instructions example
aikito show project example

The first command should print the new rule. The second should show the native instruction paths as linked and identify the actual paths for your agents.

Start a fresh coding-agent session in ~/code/example and ask:

Read this project's instructions and report the rule about verification summaries, including the file you read.

The agent should identify the rule and its instruction file. This checks that it can read the connected content; future compliance also depends on the agent's instruction-loading behavior. If it cannot find the rule, inspect the reported path and your agent's project-instruction support.

Continue with everyday work

You have completed the basic loop: edit the canonical file, synchronize its connection, and verify the result. Linked instruction content reflects future workspace edits directly; synchronize when changing resource selections or repairing connections.

Next, manage instructions and skills, keep a decision in memory, or read Workspace and synchronization.