I built a validated alternative to CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.MD — meet GUIDE.md

If you've used Claude, Cursor, or Copilot on a real project, you've probably created a CLAUDE.md or agents.md file — a markdown file that tells the AI about your codebase.

The problem is there's nothing stopping that file from being wrong.

You declare language: typescript but the project is now Python. You list entry points that no longer exist. Your version numbers drift from what's actually in package.json. The AI reads your context file, trusts it, and works from bad information.

That's why I built GUIDE.md.

What is GUIDE.md?

GUIDE.md is a validated, drift-aware AI context standard. It's the same idea as CLAUDE.md — a file that gives AI agents structured context about your project — but with one key difference:

It can be wrong. Which means it can be verified.

How it works

A GUIDE.md file has two parts:

YAML frontmatter — machine-readable metadata validated against a schema:

---

guide_version: "1.0.0"

project: "my-app"

language: python

framework: fastapi

strict_typing: false

error_protocol: verbose

guardrails:

  no_hallucination: true

  scope_creep_prevention: true

context:

  entry_points:

    - "src/main.py"

  off_limits:

    - ".env"

---

Markdown body — human and AI readable instructions:

## Project Overview

## Domain Vocabulary

## Non-Obvious Decisions

## What NOT to do

The CLI tool

npm i -g @prismteam/linter

Initialize in any project:

guidemd init

Auto-detects your language, framework, paradigm, runtime, and entry points — across TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Ruby, PHP, Swift, Dart, Elixir and more.

Validate:

guidemd lint

Catches missing required fields, stale dates, weak descriptions, and exposed secrets.

Detect drift:

guidemd sync

Compares your declared versions against actual package.json, requirements.txt, Cargo.toml, go.mod and warns you when they diverge.

Export to every format:

guidemd export

Generates CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, .windsurfrules, AGENTS.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md and .aider.conf.yml from one source of truth.

Why not just use CLAUDE.md?

CLAUDE.md is a convention. GUIDE.md is a standard.

Try it

npx @prismteam/linter init

The repo is open source — feedback and contributions welcome.