The picture
One markdown file says what your product is and how to talk about it. It becomes the Product section of the system prompt, verbatim..vendo/brief.md
The brief file
vendo init drafts it from your graded tool catalog and your code, then leaves
it alone. A brief you have edited is never overwritten by a later run.
What belongs in it: what the product is, who uses it, the house voice, and
what to emphasize. Keep it to prose you would hand a new support hire.
What does not belong in it: policy. Rules about what the agent may do are
guard directions, and they ride their own section of
the prompt.
createVendo({ instructions }) is the same slot, for a deployment that holds
its config in code. A non-blank string wins over the file, and a blank one
falls through to it.
app/api/vendo/[...vendo]/route.ts
Where it lands
The prompt is assembled fresh on every turn, in this order. A section with nothing to say drops out entirely. The theme line and the knowledge index ride only the surfaces that can render a screen. Three channels reach the model, and each has exactly one home:
Directions are policy data. They live in
.vendo/policy.json under
directions, or inline on the policy you pass the guard.
Design rules are the house style for generated screens.
The file is re-read on every generation, so an edit applies to the next screen
with no restart.
.vendo/design-rules.md
Where to go next
The brief is what your agent knows about you. These two are what it knows about the moment.Context
Who is asking, and what their screen shows.
Knowledge
Answers from your docs, with citations.
Theming
The token file every surface renders through.