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Tutorial: Multi-IDE Workflow

Time: 10 minutes | Level: Beginner

Install the same coding standards across multiple AI coding tools simultaneously.

What You Will Learn

  • How DevSync auto-detects installed tools
  • How packages adapt to different IDE formats
  • How to target specific tools

Prerequisites

  • DevSync installed (pip install devsync)
  • Two or more AI coding tools installed

Step 1: Detect Your Tools

devsync tools

AI Coding Tools
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Tool                ┃ Status        ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ Claude Code         │ ✓ Installed   │
│ Cursor              │ ✓ Installed   │
│ GitHub Copilot      │ ✓ Installed   │
│ Windsurf            │ ✗ Not found   │
│ Kiro                │ ✗ Not found   │
└─────────────────────┴───────────────┘

Found 3 installed tool(s)

Step 2: Install to All Detected Tools

devsync install ./team-standards

DevSync automatically installs to every detected tool, adapting the format:

Installing team-standards...

  Claude Code:
    Created: .claude/rules/code-style.md
    Created: .claude/rules/testing.md

  Cursor:
    Created: .cursor/rules/code-style.mdc
    Created: .cursor/rules/testing.mdc

  GitHub Copilot:
    Created: .github/instructions/code-style.instructions.md
    Created: .github/instructions/testing.instructions.md

File Format Differences

Each IDE has its own format. DevSync handles the translation:

IDE Directory Extension Notes
Claude Code .claude/rules/ .md Standard markdown
Cursor .cursor/rules/ .mdc Cursor markdown format
Windsurf .windsurf/rules/ .md Standard markdown
GitHub Copilot .github/instructions/ .instructions.md Special extension
Kiro .kiro/steering/ .md Standard markdown
Cline .clinerules/ .md Standard markdown
Roo Code .roo/rules/ .md Standard markdown
Codex CLI AGENTS.md Section markers Single-file with sections

Step 3: Target Specific Tools

Install to specific tools only:

# Just Claude Code and Cursor
devsync install ./team-standards --tool claude --tool cursor

# Just Copilot
devsync install ./team-standards --tool copilot

Step 4: Verify Across Tools

devsync list

Check individual IDE directories:

ls .claude/rules/
ls .cursor/rules/
ls .github/instructions/

Component Support by IDE

Not all IDEs support all component types. DevSync automatically skips unsupported components:

Component Claude Cursor Windsurf Copilot Kiro Cline Roo
Practices Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
MCP Servers Y Y Y Y -- -- Y
Hooks Y -- -- -- -- -- --
Commands Y -- -- -- -- -- Y
Resources Y Y Y -- Y Y Y

Keeping Tools in Sync

When you update your package, reinstall to all tools:

devsync install ./team-standards --conflict overwrite

This updates all detected tools at once.

Next Steps