FileMaker standards plugins

ADT's default FileMaker standards are a separate plugin installed alongside the core ADT agent plugin. It carries a set of skills that define baseline FileMaker conventions, and it applies automatically. To use your own shared standards, create a standards plugin, install it in your coding agent, and declare it in each ADT project that should use it.

Default standards

The default standards plugin ships with the ADT agent plugin and holds the baseline rules for FileMaker naming and design patterns as skills. The installer adds both plugins together, so every ADT project starts with a complete set of conventions and you do not install or configure the defaults yourself.

The default standards apply when a project does not declare another standards plugin. They also remain the baseline for topics that a custom plugin does not change.

Create a standards plugin

Create a standards plugin when the same team or client conventions need to apply across multiple projects. Ask your coding agent to create it and describe the rules that differ from ADT's defaults. For example:

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Create an ADT FileMaker standards plugin named acme. Require our CON__Contact table naming convention, document our script header, and treat button tooltips as review guidance.

The agent creates a distributable plugin with its manifest, permanent standards identifier, and the standards files you need. Review those files before publishing the plugin to your team.

File	What belongs there	How it combines with ADT's defaults
`naming.md`	Names for tables, fields, layouts, scripts, variables, and custom functions	Adds rules and replaces a default rule when both cover the same element
`patterns.md`	Complete design patterns, such as a required script header	Replaces the matching default section
`advisory.md`	Practices to mention during review but not enforce	Adds guidance
`checks.json`	Rules ADT can test before changing a file	Adds checks; matching rule identifiers replace defaults, and named defaults can be disabled

Only include files and sections where your organization has an explicit convention. Anything omitted continues to use the globally installed defaults.

Install and select the plugin

Publish and install the standards plugin using your coding agent's plugin workflow. A project selects the installed standards by its permanent identifier in adt.json:

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{
  "version": 1,
  "standards": { "pack": "acme" }
}

The identifier a project declares can differ from the plugin's display name. Treat the identifier as permanent: changing it prevents existing projects from finding the standards they declared.

After installation, restart any coding agent that was open. You can then ask:

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Which FileMaker standards are active for this project, and where did each standards file come from?

The agent should identify the selected plugin and explain which rules come from that plugin and which fall through to ADT's defaults.

Project-specific exceptions

A project can keep an exception in .adt/standards/. A file there takes precedence over the corresponding file from the selected standards plugin and the ADT defaults. Keep reusable team conventions in the plugin; use project files only for rules that belong to one solution.

Standards change what the agent creates or reviews. Installing a standards plugin does not rename or revise existing FileMaker objects automatically.