For AI-native developers / CODEX
A SaaS boilerplate
Codex reads from the first prompt
Codex takes its project rules from AGENTS.md. useDeploy ships one, and backs it with lint and CI, since Codex has no hooks in this repo.
How Codex loads your rules
Per the official AGENTS.md guide (https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/agent-configuration/agents-md), Codex builds its instructions when a run starts. It first checks your Codex home (~/.codex by default) and uses only the first non-empty file there, AGENTS.override.md before AGENTS.md. Then it starts at the project root and walks down toward the current directory, including at most one file per directory. Files are combined from the root downward, so files closer to your working directory override earlier guidance. Loading stops when the combined size reaches project_doc_max_bytes, 32 KiB by default. useDeploy's root AGENTS.md is about 40 lines, far below that.
What useDeploy ships today, file by file
| File in the repo | What it does | Who enforces it |
|---|---|---|
| AGENTS.md | Short architecture rules: layers, contracts, "done means green". Any agent that reads AGENTS.md gets them. | Context the agent reads. The rules it states are backed by the ESLint layer rules. |
| packages/eslint-config/ddd.js | ESLint layer rules: domain and application cannot import express, Prisma or BetterAuth; contexts talk through types. | Any tool, any editor. This is the part the agent cannot talk its way past. |
| .github/workflows/ci.yml | Lint and typecheck jobs run on every pull request (the test job too). | Any tool. This is the shared gate. |
| CLAUDE.md | Long-form operating manual: DDD layering, contracts, API regeneration, docs rules, design system. | Context only. Claude Code reads it at session start. |
What useDeploy does not ship for Codex
No .codex folder and no Codex-specific configuration; AGENTS.md is the whole integration. The hooks in .claude are Claude Code only and do not run in Codex. That makes lint and CI the enforcement for a Codex session: AGENTS.md asks the agent to run bun run guardrails before it is done, but nothing forces it to. Nested AGENTS.md files per module are not included either; the one at the root covers the repo.
Honest comparison: others ship agent files too
useDeploy is our product, so weigh this accordingly. MakerKit, supastarter, Nextbase, ShipAny and Indie Kit also ship an AGENTS.md, rules files or agent skills for AI tools, and AnotherWrapper sells a blocking-hook harness ("Hooks, not instructions"). What useDeploy adds on top of AGENTS.md is the combination of ESLint layer rules, Claude Code hooks and a CI gate in the same repo. It is not the only kit with agent files, and a rules file alone, ours or anyone's, is only a request.
The open-source kit and the guides
Take the guardrails without the boilerplate
The hooks and settings are published as an MIT kit: https://github.com/KonixDev/claude-code-guardrails. Drop it into any repo with an ESLint config and a guardrails script.
Write the files yourself
Guides: /blog/claude-md-file-example-saas (CLAUDE.md), /blog/claude-code-hooks-enforce-architecture (hooks), /blog/cursor-rules-nextjs-typescript (Cursor rules), /blog/claude-code-skills-subagents-architecture-review (skills and subagents).
Compare the kits
Roundup by use case, with the cases where another kit fits better.
Other AI tools
Claude Code
How Claude Code loads its rules, and what useDeploy covers for it.
Cursor
How Cursor loads its rules, and what useDeploy covers for it.
Windsurf
How Windsurf loads its rules, and what useDeploy covers for it.
GitHub Copilot
How GitHub Copilot loads its rules, and what useDeploy covers for it.
AGENTS.md
How AGENTS.md loads its rules, and what useDeploy covers for it.
AI coding agents: the overview
The overview of the guardrails every AI tool shares: layer rules, typed contracts and the CI gate.
FAQ
Do I need a Codex-specific file?+
Is the Claude Code hook setup useful with Codex?+
How much does useDeploy cost?+
| Price | Founder $99 or Lifetime $199, one-time payment (no subscription) |
|---|---|
| License | Full source, commercial use, unlimited projects. Founder is a frozen snapshot; Lifetime includes every future release. |
| Stack | Next.js frontend, Express API, Bun runtime, Prisma, BetterAuth |
| Auth | BetterAuth: sessions, 2FA, magic links, password reset |
| Multi-tenancy and RBAC | Organizations with members, invitations, roles and permissions |
| Payments | Polar: full billing (checkout, customer portal, webhooks, plan sync). MercadoPago: Checkout Pro one-time payments with signed webhooks; subscriptions are not supported yet. Stripe: adapter scaffold, not charging yet. |
| Guardrails for AI agents | ESLint-enforced architecture layers, Claude Code hooks and an AGENTS.md |
| Refund | 14 days |
| Try it: free account | Sign up free and explore the dashboard: organizations, roles, billing, audit log. You buy the license from inside. https://usedeploy.dev/register |
| Docs | Documentation in English, with Spanish and Portuguese translations of the main guides |
Rules the agent reads, walls it cannot cross.
Start from a base where the architecture is enforced by lint and CI, and the agent files are already written.