Do my brief and design system disappear when I start a new chat in Rideful?

No. rules.md, brief.md and design-system.md are deck files: they are stored with the deck, not the conversation. Clearing the chat or starting a new conversation keeps them, and the agent reads them in the new one.

Where do I set the rules the Rideful agent follows?

In rules.md, the first file in the column at the right edge of the editor. Open it, switch to Edit and save, or ask the agent in the chat to add a rule. Every agent working on the deck follows the same file, and a deck made from a brand template follows the template's rules until it edits its own copy.

Why didn't my template's design system change reach my deck?

Once a deck's design-system.md is edited, by you or by the agent, the deck has its own copy and the template's later changes no longer reach it. Open the file from the column beside the editor and use Reset to template to go back to the template's version.

Can I edit the design system the Rideful agent uses?

Yes. Click design-system.md in the files column at the right edge of the editor, switch to Edit and save. The agent uses your version from its next read; designers read it when they start.

Where is the research the Rideful agent did for my deck?

In the deck files, under research/: one report per research run, with numbered citations and a sources list, named for its topic and the day it ran. Open it from the files column at the right edge of the editor, below the divider, or from Research report under the researcher’s line in the chat. It stays with the deck, so a later conversation reads it instead of searching again.

What Are Deck Files?

Deck files hold what a deck is for and how it should look: the rules it follows, its brief, its design system, and the research behind it. Say it once and it sticks — every conversation on the deck, and every designer the agent sends out, works from the same files.

The chat is where you say what you want right now. Deck files are where you say it for the whole deck, or, on a brand template, for every deck made from it. You never have to touch them: the agent writes them as it works, and a deck with no file edited works well. They are there for when you want something to stick.

Which Files a Deck Has

rules.md — what the agent must follow on the deck: tone, formatting, brand and content standards. You write it, or ask the agent to; every agent on the deck follows the same file.
brief.md — what you asked for and what you've decided since. Every deck has one. The chat on your dashboard writes it when it creates a deck and hands the build over; when your messages there come to more than 1,000 characters, such as a slide-by-slide outline, they are saved word for word at its end, under Request, as sent. Any other deck's brief starts empty, with only its headings, and the agent fills it in as you share images and decide things. The agent keeps the brief up to date as you decide things in the chat, such as a different slide count or a change to one slide, and every later conversation on the deck reads it. The brief also lists, under Reference images, the images you shared to guide slides, such as a sketch to follow or a brand sheet to match, each with what it is for and a few words on what it shows, so a later conversation, or the agent late in a long one, can find them. The agent never edits your request: a change goes in as a dated line above it, which wins over it. What you ask in the chat now wins over all of it.
design-system.md — the palette, fonts, margins and visual style. The agent writes it from the deck's theme before it builds slides, and every designer and reviewer reads it, so slides built in different conversations still match.
Research reports, under research/ — the web research the agent gathered for the deck, with numbered citations and a sources list. Each research run writes one, named for its topic and the day it ran, such as research/ev-battery-market-2026-10-11.md. Before it searches again, the agent reads the reports the deck already has and weighs their date against how current the facts must be.

You can't add other files. Reports are the agent's to write: you can read, edit and delete one, but not start one.

They Belong to the Deck, Not the Chat

Deck files are stored with the deck. Clear the chat or start a new conversation and they are still there, and the agent reads them in the new one. Everyone who opens the deck in the editor sees the same files. People viewing the deck through a share link don't see them.

Duplicating a deck copies its files, the brief and research reports included. Save as template copies the rules and the design system but never the brief, which records a conversation that was yours, nor the reports, which are about this deck's topic: the template starts with an empty brief of its own.

The Files Column

A narrow column of file icons runs down the right edge of the editor, whether the chat is open or closed. Hover an icon for its status:

This deck's version — a filled dot. The deck has its own copy.
From template name — a hollow dot. The deck reads its template's file.
Not written yet — a faded icon with no dot.

Research reports come after the other files, below a divider, newest first, each with a magnifier icon. A report is always the deck's own; hover it for its name, which carries its date.

Click an icon to open the file. View shows it rendered; Edit lets you change it.

Editing a File

Open the file, switch to Edit, change the text and Save. The agent uses your version from its next read. A designer reads the design system when it starts, so designers already running finish with the version they started from.

If the file changes while you have it open — the agent edited it, or someone else saved — what happens depends on whether you have typed:

Nothing typed: the dialog shows the new text and says who changed it.
Unsaved text: a warning says the file changed and Save is disabled, so you can't overwrite the newer version. Your text stays in the editor for you to copy; Sync loads the live version.

Closing the dialog with unsaved changes asks first.

The agent edits design-system.md too, for instance after you ask it to restyle the deck. When the theme stops matching the file, it changes only the palette and font lines that contradict it and keeps the rest, above all lines a person wrote.

Inheriting from a Template

A deck made from a brand template starts with the template's rules.md and design-system.md, and reads them live: edit the template's file and every deck still inheriting it has the change. Those are the only things a deck keeps reading from its template. The theme, master, layouts and slides are copied when the deck is created, so editing those on the template changes new decks only, never the ones already made from it. The brief and research reports are never inherited. A blank deck and an imported deck start with only an empty brief; the agent writes the design system the first time it builds, and they follow no rules until someone writes them.

The first edit on the deck, by you or by the agent, gives the deck its own copy, and the column shows This deck's version. From then on the template's changes don't reach it. The dialog says so, and says when the template has updated its version since.

Reset to template discards the deck's copy and goes back to the template's file. It appears in the dialog whenever the deck has its own copy of a file its template also has.

Editing a Template's Files

Open a template in the editor and its column shows the template's own files. Changes there reach every deck made from the template that hasn't made its own copy. The dialog shows how many decks use the template, and so does the chat when the agent edits a template's file. A research report on a template stays with the template: decks made from it don't get it. Published templates, such as Rideful's starters, show their files read-only.

Deleting a File

Delete is at the bottom of the dialog, for a deck's own file with no template version behind it. For brief.md the button reads Clear.

Deleting design-system.md is safe: the agent writes a new one the next time it needs it.
Deleting rules.md leaves the deck with no rules, and can't be undone.
brief.md is never deleted: Clear empties it back to its headings, removing the images, decisions and request it recorded, and can't be undone.
Deleting a research report can't be undone. The agent searches again the next time a request needs those facts.
A file read from the template has no Delete. To drop a deck's own copy and go back to the template's, use Reset to template.

Deleting a template that decks still use doesn't take its rules or design system away from them: they keep them and can still edit them, but they can no longer be changed for all of them at once. The delete dialog says how many decks use the template. A deck that had made its own copy can still Reset to template: the deleted template's last version is kept for as long as a deck refers to it.

Over MCP

deck_get lists each deck file, research reports included, with its status — the deck's own, from the template, or not written yet — and when it was created and last edited. The rules are the exception: deck_get returns them in full, in its SLIDE RULES section, because every agent has to follow them. The other contents aren't available over MCP yet.

The AI agent — The chat panel, the plan, and the designers that read these files
Brand Templates — Import the templates decks inherit a design system from