Tool Preference Rules

olaf init writes a rules file at .claude/rules/olaf-tools.md that teaches Claude when to use Olaf MCP tools instead of native file reads. The rules include:

• Tool routing table — maps common tasks (explore codebase, analyze dependencies, diagnose errors) to the appropriate Olaf tool
• Freshness guidance — which tools auto-reindex after edits and which require a manual reindex
• When to use native tools — editing, running commands, reading a single known file, or narrow keyword searches are still best done with Edit/Write, Bash, Read, and Grep

Drift detection

The rules file includes a content hash in a marker comment. On each olaf init, Olaf compares the hash to detect drift — if the template has changed (e.g., after an Olaf upgrade), the file is regenerated.

olaf status reports the rules file state:

Status	Meaning
current	File matches the expected template
outdated	Hash mismatch — template has changed since the file was written
missing	File does not exist
malformed	File exists but has no valid hash marker

Customization

You can edit the file freely. If you want to restore the default content, delete it and re-run olaf init.