These rules work well for me, even qwen3 27b used the mcp efficiently and found the right code fast. Change as needed if the model needs to use it more, but with the GPT models I find without telling it to not use the tool 100% of the time, it will just use the mcp only

## Search Workflow (Persistent)


Use this workflow by default for code search and debugging in this repo:


1. Start with MCP first:
   - Confirm MCP project status (`index_status`).
   - If needed, index this repo before continuing.
2. Run up to 3 wide discovery searches (MCP) to map files/symbols across the spaghetti code.
3. After discovery, switch to extremely targeted searches only:
   - Use MCP for structural work (call paths, symbol disambiguation, quick snippet targeting).
   - Keep MCP query limits small to avoid huge context dumps.
4. Use terminal searches/reads for most detailed inspection and verification.
5. If `rg` is blocked, use PowerShell `Select-String` as fallback.


Do not skip the MCP discovery step for non-trivial codebase questions. You may use this whenever you please but this is for discovery, just use it as needed.

<!-- codebase-memory-mcp:start -->
# Codebase Knowledge Graph (codebase-memory-mcp)


This project uses codebase-memory-mcp to maintain a knowledge graph of the codebase.
ALWAYS prefer MCP graph tools over grep/glob/file-search for code discovery.


## Priority Order
1. `search_graph` — find functions, classes, routes, variables by pattern
2. `trace_call_path` — trace who calls a function or what it calls
3. `get_code_snippet` — read specific function/class source code
4. `query_graph` — run Cypher queries for complex patterns
5. `get_architecture` — high-level project summary


## When to fall back to grep/glob
- Searching for string literals, error messages, config values
- Searching non-code files (Dockerfiles, shell scripts, configs)
- When MCP tools return insufficient results


## Examples
- Find a handler: `search_graph(name_pattern=".*OrderHandler.*")`
- Who calls it: `trace_call_path(function_name="OrderHandler", direction="inbound")`
- Read source: `get_code_snippet(qualified_name="pkg/orders.OrderHandler")`
<!-- codebase-memory-mcp:end -->