Cookiecutter AI Conventions for Aider

This skill configures Aider with automatic context loading from a CONVENTIONS.md file and domain-specific documentation, following the cookiecutter-ai-conventions pattern by safurrier.

What This Skill Does

Sets up an Aider configuration that automatically loads project conventions, domain-specific documentation, and configures common development settings like git auto-commits, testing, and linting.

Instructions

When a user wants to set up Aider with the cookiecutter-ai-conventions pattern:

1. **Create the base .aider.conf.yaml file**:

- Start with the header comment pointing to Aider docs

- Add `read: CONVENTIONS.md` to automatically load conventions

- Set `auto-commits: false` and `commit: false` for manual git control

- Enable `pretty: true` and `stream: true` for better output

- Set `encoding: utf-8`

2. **Configure domain-specific context**:

- Add a `read-only` section with `global.md`

- If specific domains are mentioned (python, testing, web, etc.), add corresponding domain files:

- `domains/{domain}/core.md` for each domain

- If learning capture is enabled, add `staging/learnings.md`

3. **Set up testing configuration**:

- Add `test-cmd` with appropriate command:

- `pytest` for Python projects with testing

- Leave as comment placeholder otherwise

4. **Set up linting configuration**:

- Add `lint-cmd` with appropriate command:

- `ruff check` for Python projects

- Leave as comment placeholder for other languages

5. **Add optional model preferences** (commented out by default):

- `model: gpt-4o`

- `edit-format: diff`

6. **Explain the structure**:

- CONVENTIONS.md should contain project-specific coding standards

- global.md should contain organization-wide conventions

- Domain folders (domains/python/, domains/testing/, etc.) contain specialized context

- staging/learnings.md captures accumulated project insights

Example Configuration

```yaml

Aider configuration file

https://aider.chat/docs/config.html

Automatically read conventions file to provide context

read: CONVENTIONS.md

Include domain-specific conventions

read-only:

- global.md

- domains/python/core.md

- domains/testing/core.md

- staging/learnings.md

Model preferences (optional)

model: gpt-4o

edit-format: diff

Git configuration

auto-commits: false

commit: false

Output preferences

pretty: true

stream: true

Testing configuration

test-cmd: pytest

Linting configuration

lint-cmd: ruff check

Additional settings

encoding: utf-8

```

Usage

After creating this configuration:

1. Create a `CONVENTIONS.md` file with project-specific standards

2. Set up the domain structure if using domain-specific docs

3. Run `aider` - it will automatically load all configured context files

4. The conventions and domain docs provide consistent context for AI assistance

Notes