ALIGNS.md records the goals and trade-offs you want your agent to use. The align skill helps you agree on those criteria and revisit them as the work changes.
Keep personal criteria in ALIGNS.md and the reusable alignment method in the skill. Connect the agreement through your primary agent instruction file, such as AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md. Use Git history when available. Updating the skill never rewrites your agreement.
Use specialist skills within those criteria. Their default style does not become your personal preference; choices already settled in ALIGNS.md do not need another question. See recommended companion skills for development, design, review and writing.
The criteria you agree on carry over to the next task. Your agent uses the preferences it already knows, so you spend less time explaining how you want things done or making each choice yourself.
When a result misses what you had in mind, revise the criteria together and use them in the next task.
Self-alignment means clarifying your preferences and decision criteria with your agent, then checking its work against them.
Return to alignment when an important decision misses your intent, repeated corrections reveal a missing criterion, or you are unsure what to do next. You can also review selected PR feedback and accessible project conversations to find recurring criteria, called taste invariants, with their scope and exceptions. Choose recent or full history after seeing the estimated time. Before a long autonomous run, rehearse a few hypothetical choices. Clear errors get fixed directly; settled questions stay settled.
Brief requests work too. The agent checks existing context, then asks only about gaps that would materially change the result. You can agree on when it should ask and when it should proceed. Only confirmed lasting preferences go into ALIGNS.md.
Paste this request into your agent. It sets up the maintained skill and an update policy, then connects it to your project.
Set up the maintained align skill from https://github.com/hmmhmmhm/aligns.md for this project. Read its current installation guide, check the existing installation and agent instructions, and use the supported installation route for my primary CLI. Ask which CLI I mainly use, and whether it is this one, only if that is unclear.
Enable supported automatic method updates. If the client has no native auto-update option, use a targeted update at the start of each alignment session, preserving the installation scope. Keep a working installed version when offline. Explain which update mode is active; do not add a scheduler or update unrelated packages.
Use the skill to establish or review ALIGNS.md and connect the primary instruction file to it. Preserve existing rules and distinct files; propose safe links for any other clients I use. Record the invocation and update policy in ALIGNS.md. Reuse clear answers, and suggest a focused alignment check after important judgment mismatches, before untested long autonomous work, or when I am unsure of the next direction. Method updates must never rewrite my personal criteria or count as agreement.
Or install the portable skill directly:
npx skills add hmmhmmhm/aligns.md --skill alignThen ask: Use the align skill to set up ongoing alignment for this project.
Once the skill is available, ask “Help me align this project” whenever you need it. No command or exact phrase is required. If the purpose is open, choose a starting point by number: project criteria, a decision that missed expectations, history review, rehearsal before a long run, a recommendation, optional personal defaults across projects, adding the README badge when it is missing, or optional training-data collection and export. The agent outlines the steps and guides you through them. If you already say what you need, it skips the menu. It asks before saving when needed, then offers remaining topics and a finish choice. Completed or declined topics are left out. All remaining paths stay visible, including those not yet explored, with one recommended next step. Before offering finish alone, the agent accounts for all eight paths and explains any exclusions. It uses your client's choice interface when all choices fit, or a numbered list otherwise.
A short return invitation appears at most once when a self-alignment session ends. It does not appear after ordinary project tasks, installation-only work, or changes to the skill itself. You can ask to omit it entirely.
Ask “Help me organize my preferences across projects” to set up a personal ALIGNS.md, optionally drawing on personal documents or notes you choose. No particular filename or format is required. Keep common preferences separate from workplace rules. Store the file locally, or connect a separate personal repository only if you want one. Personal setup and storage.
Option 8 helps you collect decision examples for personal model training. Choose the sources, scope, storage and review checkpoints before collection starts. Review candidates, then request an SFT, eligible DPO, or evaluation export. Local storage outside the repository is the default; Git commits and uploads are separate choices. The skill does not train models or monitor every session in the background. Training-data setup and export.
Native plugin installation is available for Codex and Claude Code. Claude Code can update this marketplace automatically when enabled. Other routes can use a user-authorized update at the start of an alignment session. No background updater or universal automatic activation is assumed.
Installation and updates · Behavioral benchmark · Intervention pilot · Preference transfer · Preference retention · Validation · Distribution
Use this badge in your README if your project uses ALIGNS.md. Ask the agent to add it or choose option 7 when offered. The agent offers this option only when the badge is missing. You can also copy the Markdown below.
[](https://github.com/hmmhmmhm/aligns.md)MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 hmmhmmhm.