readme_maintenance

A rule requiring README.md to stay synchronized with documentation and important project changes. README.md is the main overview file that helps people understand and start using a project.

In plain words
What is it for?
Updating or regenerating the README after relevant documentation changes or when someone explicitly requests a README update.
Why use it?
It prevents the project overview from becoming inaccurate when documentation, architecture, features, testing, or integrations change.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/markmhendrickson/foundation/readme_maintenance
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/markmhendrickson/foundation

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 22 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,072 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00022 $0.01072
Opus 5 $0.00011 $0.00536
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00214
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00107

Measured yesterday against content hash ed2b4032ff41, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

readme_maintenance scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/readme_maintenance.mdc · 154 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 154 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

README Maintenance Rule

Reference: README.md — Project overview and entry point

Ensures that README.md remains synchronized with documentation changes, providing accurate and comprehensive representation of the repository at all times.

Configuration

This rule can be configured in foundation-config.yaml:

tooling:
  readme_generation:
    enabled: true
    source_documents: []  # List of source documents for regeneration
    structure_template: null  # Path to README structure template
    regenerate_triggers: []  # File patterns that trigger regeneration

Trigger Patterns

When any of the following occur, update README.md:

  • Documentation files are created, modified, or deleted:

    • New documentation sections added (e.g., new subsystem docs, new integration guides)
    • Architecture changes documented
    • New features or capabilities added to specs
    • Release status changes
    • Testing standards updated
    • Integration providers added or removed
  • User explicitly requests README update:

    • "update README"
    • "sync README with docs"
    • "ensure README reflects [change]"
  • Significant changes to:

    • Core features or capabilities
    • Architecture or system design
    • Development workflow or setup
    • Documentation structure
    • Current project status

Agent Actions

README updates are mandatory and automatic - whenever documentation is updated in materially affecting ways, README must be regenerated (not patched) in the same workflow, not as a separate step.

Step 1: Detect Material Documentation Changes

When modifying ANY documentation:

  1. Determine if change is material:

    A change is material if it affects:

    • Core identity or philosophy documents
    • Product positioning or problem statement
    • MVP scope or specifications
    • Architecture or system design
    • Features or capabilities
    • Release status
    • Documentation structure (new categories, reorganization)
    • Development workflow (setup, scripts)
    • Integrations (providers added/removed)
    • Target users or personas

Read the full file on GitHub · 154 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 154 lines · 22 tokens per session scan A ed2b4032ff41

Subscribe to this mod's changes

readme_maintenance is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository markmhendrickson/foundation (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 22 tokens to every session and 1,072 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.