explaingit

ralfyishere/rules-with-receipts

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

2ShellAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

An installable discipline pack for Claude Code that adds rules, skills, and gates, backed by published honest test evidence.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((rules with receipts))
    What it does
      Adds Claude Code skills
      Enforces always-on rules
      Blocks pushes without security scan
    Tech stack
      Shell scripts
      Claude Code
      Git hooks
    Use cases
      Keep agent scope disciplined
      Require verified done claims
      Test rules files honestly
    Audience
      Teams shipping with AI agents
      Solo builders
    Evidence
      Published A_B test scores
      Corrected earlier claims
      Independent replication check

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Install a discipline layer that keeps a coding agent from wandering outside a requested task's scope.

USE CASE 2

Block a project's pushes and releases until a security scan passes automatically.

USE CASE 3

Review published test evidence before trusting a rules file to change agent behavior.

What is it built with?

ShellClaude CodeGit hooks

How does it compare?

ralfyishere/rules-with-receiptsaizhigitovamir-code/n8n-automation-suiteayush-sk-pathak/claude-code-starter-pack
Stars222
LanguageShellShellShell
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity2/53/52/5
Audiencedeveloperpm founderdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

One-line curl bootstrap script installs it into an existing project.

MIT license: free to use, modify, and distribute, including commercially, as long as the copyright notice is kept.

In plain English

Rules with Receipts is an installable set of behavior rules and skills for Claude Code, the AI coding agent tool, designed to make agents more disciplined rather than smarter. The project's core argument is that most agent rules files promise big improvements with no proof behind them, while agents keep failing in predictable ways, such as claiming a task is finished without actually testing it, or making unrequested changes alongside what was asked. This project tries to fix that by shipping alongside its own testing system that measures whether the rules actually change behavior, and by publishing the results honestly, including results that do not flatter the project. You install it by running a bootstrap script against your own project folder, or by cloning the repository and running an install script directly if you would rather review the code first. After installing, it adds 37 skills, 14 rules that stay active at all times, and gates that block actions like pushing code or publishing a release until a security scan passes, even if the agent forgets to check on its own. The published evaluation results are notably candid. The author found that a plain, unmodified model already passes most of their own tests without any rules installed, and that the biggest measurable improvement from installing this pack is in staying within the requested scope of a task rather than wandering into related changes. An earlier claim about a specific bonus effect, catching an adjacent bug more reliably, did not hold up in later, larger test runs, and the author documents that correction openly rather than hiding it. An independent third party test also did not fully reproduce the original headline result. The author is explicit that this project is not an intelligence upgrade, not a general capability benchmark, not a safety guarantee, and not a substitute for a human reviewing the agent's work. It is released under the MIT license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me install rules-with-receipts into my project using the bootstrap script.
Prompt 2
Explain what the 14 always-on rules do after installing this pack.
Prompt 3
Show me how the publish gate blocks pushes until a security scan passes.
Prompt 4
What did the author's own evaluation find actually changed after installing this?

Frequently asked questions

What is rules-with-receipts?

An installable discipline pack for Claude Code that adds rules, skills, and gates, backed by published honest test evidence.

What language is rules-with-receipts written in?

Mainly Shell. The stack also includes Shell, Claude Code, Git hooks.

What license does rules-with-receipts use?

MIT license: free to use, modify, and distribute, including commercially, as long as the copyright notice is kept.

How hard is rules-with-receipts to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is rules-with-receipts for?

Mainly developer.

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