# Export guidelines to captured repositories

The repositories the wiki captures documentation from can get something back: the wiki's
guidelines, as one generated `GUIDELINES.md` in each repository's root, which that repository's own
agents then read.

## What you prepare

- **Decide which pages count as guidelines.** That decision is yours, and it is written down in
  `kb/CONVENTIONS.md` § Guidelines for other repositories. Usually it is a tag. To see the file
  exactly as it would be written, without touching any repository:

  ```bash
  tools/wikitool export guidelines --tag guideline
  ```

- **Opt each repository in, by hand, once.** A repository takes part only if it carries a
  `GUIDELINES.md` whose first line is exactly:

  ```markdown
  <!-- wikitool:export kind=guidelines -->
  ```

  Commit that one line there. Then point the repository's own `AGENTS.md` at the file (for Claude
  Code: `@GUIDELINES.md`). A `GUIDELINES.md` without that first line is hand-written, and the export
  never touches it.

The repository has to be one the wiki has captured
([Capture documentation from a git repository](capture-repository-docs.md)). That is how the export
knows where the repository lives. Its capture also has to follow a branch: a repository captured by
a tag pattern is skipped, because a tag has no branch to commit onto.

## What you say

```text
Roll out the guidelines to the captured repositories
```

## Where the agent stops

The agent runs `export guidelines --push`, which stops before pushing anything. This is the
**Guideline Push Gate** (exit 42). For every repository, it prints the status, the diff it would
write and a `--confirm <token>` line. The agent puts every diff in front of you. Only your approval
pushes, and then only one commit per repository, which changes only `GUIDELINES.md` and goes
straight onto its branch.

The token is a digest of each target's branch tip and of the generated file. If a branch has moved
or a guideline was edited since you looked, the gate asks again rather than pushing something you
did not see.

## Related

- [Export commands](../reference/commands/exports.md)
- [Export pages to a synced folder](export-to-a-synced-folder.md) - the other export, a read-only
  version of `kb/` pages
- [Why the gates are code](../explanation/why-gates-are-code.md)