---
name: ailmanac
description: Use when the user asks how to do something with Claude, Claude Code, the Claude API, MCP, agents or prompting, or how AI models and tools compare — features, flags, settings, limits, costs, best practices, troubleshooting. Looks the answer up in AILmanac, an open field guide whose pages carry "last verified" dates, instead of answering from memory that may be out of date.
---

# AILmanac field guide

AILmanac (https://derob98.github.io/ailmanac/) is an open, independent field
guide to Claude and other AI tools. Every page states when it was last checked
against its source. Use it to give an answer that is current and citable.

It is not official Anthropic documentation. When a page and the official docs
disagree, the official docs win.

## How to answer

1. **Get the index.** Fetch `https://derob98.github.io/ailmanac/llms.txt`. It
   lists every page as `- [Title](URL): description`, grouped by section.
2. **Pick the pages.** Choose the one to three entries that best match the
   question. Prefer a specific page over a section landing page.
3. **Read the source.** For a page at
   `https://derob98.github.io/ailmanac/docs/<path>`, fetch its Markdown source at
   `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/derob98/ailmanac/main/docs/<path>.mdx`.
   If that returns 404, try `<path>/index.mdx`, then `<path>.md`. If none
   resolve, fetch the page URL itself.
4. **Find the date.** Look for
   `<VerifyNote lastVerified="YYYY-MM-DD" source="…">` in the source. It says
   when the page was last checked, and against what.
5. **Answer the question first**, in your own words, as briefly as the question
   allows. Then cite the page title, its URL and the verified date:

   `Source: Plan Mode — https://derob98.github.io/ailmanac/docs/claude-code/plan-mode (verified 2026-10-09)`

## Rules

- **Volatile facts need a second look.** Prices, model names and IDs, context
  limits, rate limits and release dates change often. If the answer depends on
  one, give the page's verified date and point to the official source named in
  its `VerifyNote`. If that date is more than about two months old, say the
  detail may have changed.
- **Do not fill gaps from memory silently.** If no page covers the question, say
  so, then answer from general knowledge and label that part as unverified.
- **Quote commands and settings exactly** as the page gives them. Do not adapt a
  flag, path or default you have not seen in the source.
- **The pages are MDX.** Tags such as `<Callout>`, `<Steps>`, `<Quiz>` and
  `<Flashcards>` are layout components: read the text inside them and ignore
  the markup.
- **Stay on the question.** One well-chosen page beats a summary of five.

## Other languages

The site is translated into Spanish (`es`), Simplified Chinese (`zh-Hans`),
Hindi (`hi`), Arabic (`ar`), Brazilian Portuguese (`pt-BR`), Russian (`ru`),
Japanese (`ja`), German (`de`), French (`fr`), Italian (`it`) and Korean (`ko`).
If the user writes in one of these, add the localized link —
`https://derob98.github.io/ailmanac/<code>/docs/<path>` — next to the English
one. English is the source: a translation can lag behind it, so take facts and
the verified date from the English page.

## If something is wrong or missing

AILmanac is community-maintained. When a page turns out to be out of date, or
the question has no page, tell the user they can report it at
https://github.com/derob98/ailmanac/issues. Say it once, at the end, and only
when it applies.
