Bolt vs Jules | agentconfig.ing

Bolt vs JulesComparisonUpdated 2026-03-16

SUMMARY

Bolt (Platform) uses text configuration while Jules (Agent) uses markdown. They differ on 4 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Bolt	Jules	Notes
Config format	text	markdown
Hierarchy support	✗	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✗	✗	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✗	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	✗
IDE integration	Platform	Agent
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

FILE MAPPING

Purpose	Bolt	Jules
Project instructions	.bolt/prompt	AGENTS.md
Project instructions	AGENTS.md	GEMINI.md

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Bolt

.bolt/prompt

text

You are building a SaaS dashboard application.

Stack: Remix with TypeScript, Prisma ORM, PostgreSQL, TailwindCSS.

Key rules:
- Use server loaders for data fetching, not client-side fetch
- All forms use Remix Form with progressive enhancement
- Use Prisma for all database operations
- Style with TailwindCSS utility classes, no custom CSS
- Components go in app/components/, routes in app/routes/
- Use zod for form validation on both client and server

Jules

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Agent Instructions

## Project
A Django REST API serving a React frontend.

## Setup
- Python 3.12 with Poetry
- PostgreSQL 15
- Redis for caching and Celery broker

## Key Commands
- poetry run python manage.py runserver
- poetry run pytest
- poetry run mypy .

## Pull Request Guidelines
- Keep PRs focused on a single issue
- Add tests for all new functionality
- Update API docs in docs/api/ if endpoints change
- Run the linter: poetry run ruff check .

## Architecture Notes
- apps/core/ — shared models and utilities
- apps/api/v2/ — current API version
- apps/tasks/ — Celery background tasks

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Config format

Bolt: text. Jules: markdown.

2. Hierarchy support

Bolt: Not supported. Jules: Supported.

3. Subdirectory scoping

Bolt: Not supported. Jules: Supported.

4. IDE integration

Bolt: Platform. Jules: Agent.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Bolt, configure .bolt/prompt. If you use Jules, configure AGENTS.md. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md