Rules & Instructions

The .dinorules file lets you define custom instructions and development standards to tailor how DinoAI responds. These rules are specific to your project and apply to every DinoAI interaction — in both the Copilot and the Slack / Programmable / Bolt agents. DinoAI reads them automatically at the start of every session; there is nothing to configure.

.dinorules file is git-tracked by defaultIf you don’t want this file git-tracked, see docs to disable.

Key Benefits

Define Project-Specific Rules: Customize DinoAI’s behavior to match your team’s unique needs and workflows.
Set Technical Standards: Specify coding patterns, architecture guidelines, and best practices for your project.
Adapt Over Time: Easily modify the rules as your project evolves and requirements change.
Team Collaboration: Files are git-tracked by default, enabling shared standards across your entire data team.

Setting Up .dinorules

From the Code IDE, click the DinoAI icon (🦖) on the right-side panel.
Click the settings icon (⚙️) at the top right of the DinoAI panel
Click “Edit” in the .dinorules section to create file.
1. Alternatively, you manually add a .dinorules file in your project files

Make sure the .dinorules file is placed in the root directory of your repository

your-repository
├── dbt_project/
│   ├── staging/
│   └── marts/
├── macros/
├── seeds/
├── .dinorules              # .dinorules file location
├── README.md

Add your custom instructions to the file. These can be general or highly specific - there’s no set syntax required.

Example .dinorules file configuration

General Project Context
- Domain: E-commerce analytics
- Data Stack: dbt project using Snowflake
- Primary Goal: Provide accurate, reusable, and scalable answers to analytics engineering-related questions.


Modeling Guidelines
- Naming: Use `snake_case` for all model and column names.
- Structure: Assume models follow a `staging → marts` hierarchy.


Materialization Standards
- Staging Models: Typically materialized as views.
- Mart Models: Typically materialized as incremental.
- Performance Exceptions: Assume exceptions may exist for performance reasons.


SQL and dbt Best Practices
1. Trailing Commas: Always use trailing commas in `SELECT` statements for clean diffs.
2. SQL Keywords: Write all SQL keywords (`SELECT`, `FROM`, etc.) in uppercase.
3. snake_case: Consistently use `snake_case` for names.
4. CTEs: Use Common Table Expressions (CTEs) instead of subqueries for clarity.
5. Comments: Add comments to improve readability, especially for complex logic.


Testing Standards
- Schema Tests: Recommend `unique` and `not_null` tests for all primary keys and critical columns.
- Data Tests: Suggest data tests for key metrics and transformations to ensure quality.


Answering Style
1. Specificity: Tailor answers to dbt-specific workflows.
2. No Assumptions: Focus on answering questions without assuming the capability to execute code.
3. Best Practices: Default to dbt and analytics engineering best practices unless otherwise requested.


Documentation Standards
- Descriptive Naming: Recommend clear and descriptive names for models and columns.
- Comments: Suggest adding column comments to enhance data lineage clarity.
- schema.yml: Emphasize the importance of keeping `schema.yml` files updated.

CLAUDE.md and AGENT.md

DinoAI also reads the standard CLAUDE.md and AGENT.md instruction files if they already exist in your repository — so any agent instructions you maintain for other tools carry over with no changes. Like .dinorules, they are picked up automatically at the start of every session across both Copilot and the agents, and they can live at the repository root or alongside the relevant part of your project.

.dinorules, CLAUDE.md, and AGENT.md are complementary — DinoAI reads all of them. Use .dinorules for Paradime-specific guidance and keep CLAUDE.md / AGENT.md for instructions shared with other agent tooling.

Git Tracking

.dinorules file is git-tracked by default to enable seamless team collaboration on DinoAI configurations.

What This Means

.dinorules is tracked by git automatically
You can commit, modify, and request reviews like any other file in your repository
Full change tracking and version history
Seamless team collaboration on AI configurations

Disabling Git Tracking

If you haven’t agreed internally on rules/prompts: You may encounter a merge conflict when updating your branch. You can use Paradime to resolve it, but we recommend agreeing on common versions for the .dinorules file first.

To disable, simply add .dinorules to your .gitignore file.

Slack Bot Agent

Programmable Agent

Bolt Pipeline Agent

Copilot

MCP Server

Context & Customization

DinoAI Tools

Settings & Credits

Rules & Instructions

Setting Up .dinorules

CLAUDE.md and AGENT.md

Git Tracking

Disabling Git Tracking

​Setting Up .dinorules

​CLAUDE.md and AGENT.md

​Git Tracking

​Disabling Git Tracking

Setting Up .dinorules

CLAUDE.md and AGENT.md

Git Tracking

Disabling Git Tracking