Choose the right place for your guidance
Use Augment User Guidelines for personal preferences, package versions, styles, and implementation details that should shape future chats in an IDE. User Guidelines are stored locally and apply to future chats in that IDE, but they do not move between VSCode and JetBrains. See Augment Guidelines.
Add personal instructions in Augment
Add User Guidelines through the Context menu, an @-mention in Chat, or Settings > Rules and User Guidelines. Context-menu guidelines are saved by pressing Escape or waiting for autosave. In VSCode, the per-user guidelines file is ~/.augment/user-guidelines.md. See Augment Guidelines.
Write concise guidance
Keep each guideline simple, clear, and concise. A short list works well for preferences, documentation, frameworks, workflows, and workstyles. User Guidelines have a 24,576-character maximum, while Workspace Guidelines and Rules have a 49,512-character maximum. See Augment Guidelines.
Use workspace rules for a project
Workspace rules live in .augment/rules and can use Always, Manual, or Auto types. Always rules are included in every prompt, Manual rules are attached through an @ tag, and Auto rules are attached when the Agent detects a match from their description. Workspace rules can be shared through version control. See Augment Guidelines.
Load repository guidance automatically
Augment discovers AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md in a file's directory and parent directories, stopping at the workspace root. Files in .augment/rules load only from the workspace root. A repository-root .augment-guidelines file can provide guidance for all Agent and Chat sessions on that codebase. See Augment Guidelines.
Add reference material for Augment
Augment can automatically import detected workspace Markdown and MDX files as rules. You can also import rules in Settings > Import rules. Use these files for reference material that should travel with the project and be available to Augment in that workspace. See Augment Guidelines.
Where KnowMan fits
KnowMan saves articles and links, reads and tags them, and answers questions with citations. Its local stdio MCP server exposes kb_search, kb_get_item, kb_ask, and kb_save for searching saved items, reading one item, asking questions, and saving a URL. Connecting it to Augment depends on Augment supporting a local stdio MCP server. See the MCP server guide.
Questions people ask
What is the easiest way to teach Augment Code my preferences?
Add User Guidelines through the Context menu, an @-mention in Chat, or Settings > Rules and User Guidelines. They are stored locally in the IDE and apply to future chats there. See Augment Guidelines.
Should I use User Guidelines or workspace rules?
Use User Guidelines for personal preferences that apply in future chats in one IDE. Use workspace rules for project-specific guidance that can be shared through version control. See Augment Guidelines.
Can KnowMan give Augment Code access to saved articles?
KnowMan's MCP tools can search saved items, read one item, answer questions with citations, and save a URL. Augment must support a local stdio MCP server for this setup. See the MCP server guide.