Steering

Guide Mind's AI with persistent context through markdown documents that define your standards, architecture, and conventions

What is steering?

Steering gives Mind persistent knowledge about your project through markdown files. Instead of explaining your conventions in every chat, steering files ensure Mind consistently follows your established patterns, libraries, and standards.

Capability	IDE	CLI	Web
Workspace steering (`.mind/steering/`)	✓	✓	✓
Global steering (`~/.mind/steering/`)	✓	✓	—
Cloud steering managed in Web settings	—	—	✓
Generate foundation files via UI	✓	—	—
Inclusion modes (always, fileMatch, manual, auto)	✓	✓	✓
AGENTS.md support	✓	✓	✓

On Web, "Global steering" refers to your local ~/.mind/steering/ directory, which the cloud sandbox cannot read. To reuse personal steering across cloud sessions, upload it through Configuration Sync; the cloud copy then applies to every cloud session.

Key benefits

Consistent Code Generation — Every component, API endpoint, or test follows your team's established patterns and conventions.

Reduced Repetition — No need to explain project standards in each conversation.

Team Alignment — All developers work with the same standards, whether they're new to the project or seasoned contributors.

Scalable Project Knowledge — Documentation that grows with your codebase, capturing decisions and patterns as your project evolves.

Steering file scope

Steering files can be created with a workspace scope or a global scope.

Workspace steering

Workspace steering files reside in your project root folder under .mind/steering/, and inform Mind of the patterns, libraries, and standards that apply only to that workspace.

Global steering

Global steering files reside in your home directory under ~/.mind/steering/, and inform Mind of conventions that apply to all your workspaces.

In case of conflicting instructions between global and workspace steering, Mind will prioritize the workspace steering instructions.

Team steering

The global steering feature can be used to define centralised steering files that apply to entire teams. Team steering files can be pushed to user's PCs via MDM solutions or Group Policies, or downloaded by users to their PCs from a central repository, and placed into the ~/.mind/steering folder.

Agents.md

Mind supports providing steering directives via the AGENTS.md standard. AGENTS.md files are in markdown format, similar to Mind steering files; however, AGENTS.md files do not support inclusion modes and are always included.

You can add AGENTS.md files to the global steering file location (~/.mind/steering/), or to the root folder of your workspace, and they will get picked up by Mind automatically.

AGENTS.md files are also discovered in subdirectories throughout your workspace. This lets you place an AGENTS.md next to the code it describes — for example, one in services/api/ and another in packages/ui/ — and each is loaded as steering context alongside your other steering files.

Inclusion modes

Steering files can be configured to load at different times based on your needs. This flexibility helps optimise performance and ensures relevant context is available when needed.

Configure inclusion modes by adding front matter to the top of your steering files. The front matter uses YAML syntax and must be placed at the very beginning of the file, enclosed by triple dashes (---).

The inclusion configuration must be the first content in the file — no blank lines or content before it.

Always included (default)

---
inclusion: always
---

These files are loaded into every Mind interaction automatically. Use this mode for core standards that should influence all code generation and suggestions. Examples include your technology stack, coding conventions, and fundamental architectural principles.

Best for: Workspace-wide standards, technology preferences, security policies, and coding conventions that apply universally.

Conditional inclusion

---
inclusion: fileMatch
fileMatchPattern: "components/**/*.tsx"
---

Files are automatically included only when working with files that match the specified pattern. This keeps context relevant and reduces noise by loading specialised guidance only when needed.

Best for: Domain-specific standards like component patterns, API design rules, testing approaches, or deployment procedures that only apply to certain file types.

Manual inclusion

---
inclusion: manual
---

Files are available on-demand by referencing them with #steering-file-name in your chat messages. This gives you precise control over when specialised context is needed without cluttering every interaction.

Best for: Specialised workflows, troubleshooting guides, migration procedures, or context-heavy documentation that's only needed occasionally.

Auto inclusion

---
inclusion: auto
name: api-design
description: REST API design patterns and conventions. Use when creating or modifying API endpoints.
---

Files are automatically included when your request matches the description. This works similarly to skills — Mind uses the description to decide when the steering file is relevant.

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Identifier for the steering file. Used for display and matching.
description	Yes	When to include this file. Mind matches this against your requests.

Best for: Context-heavy guidance that should only load when relevant — like specialised domain knowledge, complex workflows, or detailed reference material that would overwhelm always-on steering.

File references

Link to live workspace files to keep steering current:

#[[file:<relative_file_name>]]

Examples:

API specs: #[[file:api/openapi.yaml]]
Component patterns: #[[file:components/ui/button.tsx]]
Config templates: #[[file:.env.example]]

Steering during a session

In addition to persistent steering files, you can steer Mind in real time during any session by providing direction in the chat:

"Use the repository's existing error handling pattern"
"Follow the same approach as the UserService class"
"Make sure to add integration tests, not just unit tests"

Teaching through code reviews

On Mind Web, you can steer the agent by leaving feedback on pull requests. When you comment on a PR with guidance like "always use our standard error handling" or "follow our naming conventions," the agent learns and applies those patterns to future work across all your repositories.

Only your feedback (the user who created the task) influences the agent's learnings. Other reviewers' comments don't affect what the agent learns.

Best practices

Keep Files Focused — One domain per file — API design, testing, or deployment procedures.

Use Clear Names: api-rest-conventions.md, testing-unit-patterns.md, components-form-validation.md.

Include Context — Explain why decisions were made, not just what the standards are.

Provide Examples — Use code snippets and before/after comparisons to demonstrate standards.

Security First — Never include API keys, passwords, or sensitive data. Steering files are part of your codebase.

Maintain Regularly — Review during sprint planning and architecture changes; test file references after restructuring.

Common steering file strategies

API Standards (api-standards.md) — Define REST conventions, error response formats, authentication flows, and versioning strategies. Include endpoint naming patterns, HTTP status code usage, and request/response examples.

Testing Approach (testing-standards.md) — Establish unit test patterns, integration test strategies, mocking approaches, and coverage expectations. Document preferred testing libraries, assertion styles, and test file organisation.

Code Style (code-conventions.md) — Specify naming patterns, file organisation, import ordering, and architectural decisions. Include examples of preferred code structures, component patterns, and anti-patterns to avoid.

Security Guidelines (security-policies.md) — Document authentication requirements, data validation rules, input sanitization standards, and vulnerability prevention measures. Include secure coding practices specific to your application.

Deployment Process (deployment-workflow.md) — Outline build procedures, environment configurations, deployment steps, and rollback strategies. Include CI/CD pipeline details and environment-specific requirements.

Project steering files

A spec covers one feature. Three documents cover the project, and they outlive every spec you write: what you are building, what you are building it with, and how the code is laid out. Together they are the constitution the agent works under. You write them; Mind loads them on every turn.

Put them in .mind/steering/ and give them these names:

Product Overview (product.md) — Defines your product's purpose, target users, key features, and business objectives. This helps Mind understand the "why" behind technical decisions.
Technology Stack (tech.md) — Documents your chosen frameworks, libraries, development tools, and technical constraints.
Project Structure (structure.md) — Outlines file organisation, naming conventions, import patterns, and architectural decisions.

Nothing generates these for you. A steering file needs no frontmatter: the filename becomes the rule's id and the body is the rule, so a plain Markdown document is enough. Any file without a fileMatchPattern is included in every interaction, which is why these three form the baseline the agent starts from. Mind also reads .kiro/steering/ if you already keep them there.

To generate project steering files in the IDE:

Navigate to the Steering section in the Mind panel
Click the Generate Steering Docs button, or click the + button and select the Foundation steering files option
Mind will create three project steering files in .mind/steering/

Creating custom steering files

Extend Mind's understanding with specialised guidance tailored to your project's unique needs.

Navigate to the Steering section in the Mind panel
Click the + button
Select the scope of the steering file: workspace or global
Choose a descriptive filename (e.g., api-standards.md)
Write your guidance using standard markdown syntax
Use natural language to describe your requirements
Optionally, use the Refine button to have Mind refine your requirements

Once created, steering files become immediately available across all Mind interactions.

Steering with custom agents

When using custom agents, steering files are not automatically included. You must explicitly add them to the agent's resources configuration to load steering context.

To include all steering files in a custom agent, add the following to your agent configuration:

{
  "resources": ["file://.mind/steering/**/*.md"]
}

See the custom agents documentation for a complete configuration example.