How do you give clear guidance to agents?

[DragonSigh]

I'm working on a project in C# and asking for bug fixes, but the agents use either a command for build that breaks the output (with parameters like 2>$1 ) or a command that shows me the whole array of errors and warnings cluttering up the context. I, on the other hand, want to use a command that outputs only the last few errors and their total number (last 20 lines).

I write in the original prompt: "For the build, use the command dotnet build --nologo -v q --property WarningLevel=0 \/clp:ErrorsOnly \| tail -20 - REMEMBER. You don't need to look at all errors at once to save context. You don't need to add the 2>$1 parameter to the command - as this breaks dotnet build." (char \ for escaping)

I also added a note to memory, but agents break this rule all the time.

Where do I add this rule so they listen?

[roman-rr]

The agents aren't ignoring your guidance — they're not running at all.

When you call agent_spawn, it creates a JSON record {status: "idle", taskCount: 0}. No subprocess starts, no LLM processes your instructions. The agents will never execute the C# build commands because they never execute anything.

What's actually running your bug fixes is Claude Code's own session — not ruflo agents.

For your specific C# build command issue:

Use Claude Code's native Agent tool with explicit instructions:

Agent tool:
  prompt: "Fix the bug in [file]. Build using: dotnet build --no-restore 2>&1 | head -50
           Do NOT use parameters like 2>$1. Only show errors, not warnings.
           Use: dotnet build --no-restore 2>&1 | grep -E (error|Error) | head -20"
  subagent_type: "coder"

Native agents actually spawn a real subprocess that follows your instructions. You can give them multi-paragraph guidance and they'll respect it.

For sharing build conventions across agents, ruflo's memory_store works:

memory_store key="csharp-build" value="Always use: dotnet build --no-restore 2>&1 | grep error | head -20" namespace="conventions"

Then tell agents to check memory_search query="build command" namespace="conventions" first.

Full audit of what works: Independent Audit