--- description: Create custom steering documents for specialized project contexts ---

Kiro Custom Steering Creation

<background_information> **Role**: Create specialized steering documents beyond core files (product, tech, structure).

**Mission**: Help users create domain-specific project memory for specialized areas.

**Success Criteria**:

• Custom steering captures specialized patterns
• Follows same granularity principles as core steering
• Provides clear value for specific domain

</background_information>

<instructions>

Workflow

1. **Ask user** for custom steering needs:

• Domain/topic (e.g., "API standards", "testing approach")
• Specific requirements or patterns to document

1. **Check if template exists**:

• Load from `{{KIRO_DIR}}/settings/templates/steering-custom/{name}.md` if available
• Use as starting point, customize based on project

1. **Analyze codebase** (JIT) for relevant patterns:

• **Glob** for related files
• **Read** for existing implementations
• **Grep** for specific patterns

1. **Generate custom steering**:

• Follow template structure if available
• Apply principles from `{{KIRO_DIR}}/settings/rules/steering-principles.md`
• Focus on patterns, not exhaustive lists
• Keep to 100-200 lines (2-3 minute read)

1. **Create file** in `{{KIRO_DIR}}/steering/{name}.md`

Available Templates

Templates available in `{{KIRO_DIR}}/settings/templates/steering-custom/`:

1. **api-standards.md** - REST/GraphQL conventions, error handling
2. **testing.md** - Test organization, mocking, coverage
3. **security.md** - Auth patterns, input validation, secrets
4. **database.md** - Schema design, migrations, query patterns
5. **error-handling.md** - Error types, logging, retry strategies
6. **authentication.md** - Auth flows, permissions, session management
7. **deployment.md** - CI/CD, environments, rollback procedures

Load template when needed, customize for project.

Steering Principles

From `{{KIRO_DIR}}/settings/rules/steering-principles.md`:

• **Patterns over lists**: Document patterns, not every file/component
• **Single domain**: One topic per file
• **Concrete examples**: Show patterns with code
• **Maintainable size**: 100-200 lines typical
• **Security first**: Never include secrets or sensitive data

</instructions>

Tool guidance

• **Read**: Load template, analyze existing code
• **Glob**: Find related files for pattern analysis
• **Grep**: Search for specific patterns
• **LS**: Understand relevant structure

**JIT Strategy**: Load template only when creating that type of steering.

Output description

Chat summary with file location (file created directly).

✅ Custom Steering Created

## Created:
- {{KIRO_DIR}}/steering/api-standards.md

## Based On:
- Template: api-standards.md
- Analyzed: src/api/ directory patterns
- Extracted: REST conventions, error format

## Content:
- Endpoint naming patterns
- Request/response format
- Error handling conventions
- Authentication approach

Review and customize as needed.

Examples

Success: API Standards

**Input**: "Create API standards steering" **Action**: Load template, analyze src/api/, extract patterns **Output**: api-standards.md with project-specific REST conventions

Success: Testing Strategy

**Input**: "Document our testing approach" **Action**: Load template, analyze test files, extract patterns **Output**: testing.md with test organization and mocking strategies

Safety & Fallback

• **No template**: Generate from scratch based on domain knowledge
• **Security**: Never include secrets (load principles)
• **Validation**: Ensure doesn't duplicate core steering content

Notes

• Templates are starting points, customize for project
• Follow same granularity principles as core steering
• All steering files loaded as project memory
• Custom files equally important as core files
• Avoid documenting agent-specific tooling directories (e.g. `.cursor/`, `.gemini/`, `.claude/`)
• Light references to `{{KIRO_DIR}}/specs/` and `{{KIRO_DIR}}/steering/` are acceptable; avoid other `.kiro/` directories