Guides / Component rules
Claude decides how to present your content. Component rules are how you constrain that decision where it matters, and hand the rest over. Find them in Settings, under Personalisation.
Four steps, in this order. Later steps cannot undo earlier ones. That single fact resolves almost every question about which setting wins.
Eligibility: who and when
enforced, before Claude runs
Safety rules: what may never happen
always on, checked again after
Assembly guidance: does it suit the content?
advice, weighed by Claude
Applied to the result
enforced, max per assembly, zone, layout
Later steps cannot undo earlier ones. That resolves almost every question about which setting wins.
Show at stages and Show to audiences decide whether a component can be used at all. This runs before Claude does. An ineligible component is removed from the list Claude is given, so it never sees it and nothing later can bring it back. Audiences are your own audience segments, not fixed roles: rename or replace them and the rules follow.
Every component carries built-in rules you cannot edit or switch off. Testimonial quotes are copied word for word from your atom. Statistics must match the key stats you entered, so a number can never be invented or rounded. A comparison table can only name a competitor your own content names. These are checked again after Claude responds, and a component that breaks one is dropped rather than shown.
Among the components that are eligible, guidance tells Claude which ones suit the content on the page. It is advice, weighed alongside your brand voice, not a rule. Guidance is never about who sees a component or when, because step 1 has already settled that. If you write a restriction here, the admin will spot it and offer to turn it into a real rule.
Max per assembly, page zone and layout width are applied to whatever Claude returns. Position is corrected too, so a call to action always lands last, and the cap keeps a slot for it rather than trimming it away.
This is the distinction worth internalising. A rule is checked by the server, so it always holds. Advice is text in a prompt: Claude usually follows it, and sometimes has a good reason not to. If you need something to always be true, it has to be a rule.
| Setting | Kind | When it acts |
|---|---|---|
| Show at stages | Rule | Enforced before Claude runs |
| Show to audiences | Rule | Enforced before Claude runs |
| Safety rules | Rule | Verified after Claude responds, cannot be edited |
| Assembly guidance | Advice | Weighed by Claude, may be set aside |
| Brand voice | Advice | Sets the tone of copy Claude writes itself |
| Max per assembly | Rule | Applied to the result |
| Page zone | Rule | Applied to the result, where your integration uses zones |
| Layout width | Rule | Applied to the result |
Guidance answers one question: given that this component is available for this visitor, does it suit the content on the page? Write about the content, not the audience.
Good guidance
Write these as rules instead
Type one of those restrictions into the guidance box and the admin will flag it and offer to set it as a rule with one click. Written as guidance it is a suggestion Claude may ignore. Written as a rule it is enforced on every assembly.
Zone decides where a component renders: hero, body, proof, or CTA. It only takes effect when your integration uses zones, which means WordPress Zone blocks, or the zone prop in Next.js and React. If your page renders the whole assembly in one place, as the script tag does, the zone setting is ignored.
Spectare records every component arrangement it shows, with its impressions and conversions. Once an arrangement clears your signal threshold, it is fed back into assembly: Claude is told which arrangements convert best for each audience and stage, and prefers them when your atoms support one.
Rules and the learning loop pull in the same direction. The loop finds what converts. Rules protect what must never vary. Reach for a rule when you have a reason the data cannot see, a compliance constraint, a brand decision, a component your legal team will not allow on a pricing page. Leave the rest unset and let the data settle it.