skills
AGENTS.md1 starsChanged 33 days agoMITView on GitHub
- Merged changes deploy. My machines install origin/main into every agent's skills folder every two minutes, so an unmerged edit never runs. To fix an installed copy, edit it where it is installed and send it back with skills-pr (docs/sync-system.md). - Never edit a directory that contains a .vendored stamp. The next update replaces it. Send the fix upstream instead (docs/vendoring.md). A vendor PR merges itself once validate passes if it just moves the pin (.vendored and vendor.toml) or its…
Where files are headingNew AGENTS.md files have more rules about keeping secrets out of the code, and fewer about code style.
Of the AGENTS.md files we read, the 31,774 first seen in the last six months, against the older ones: the kind of rule that gained most share, and the kind that lost most. About files like this in general, not this one, and an estimate, since a kind is a pattern in the words.
In this repository18 other files it gives its agents.
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- blast-radiusSkill
- claude-remote-control-serverSkill
- correctSkill
- councilSkill
- cross-reviewSkill
- docs-reviewSkill
- evidence-bundleSkill
- herdrSkill
- intent-cardSkill
- one-termSkill
- owner-charterSkill
- quotaSkill
- starbridgeSkill
- test-auditSkill
- unnarrateSkill
- unslopSkill
- verifySkill
The file
We split this AGENTS.md into the rules it gives an agent
2 rules. About 0 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 2 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈0
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
2
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- could be automatic: a setting could enforce it
- Very specific: line 7
Never edit a directory that contains a .vendored stamp.
- Very specific: line 19
Every line in a SKILL.md must correct something the model would otherwise get wrong.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 40,246 AGENTS.md files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
AGENTS.md
- Merged changes deploy. My machines install
origin/maininto every agent's skills folder every two minutes, so an unmerged edit never runs. To fix an installed copy, edit it where it is installed and send it back withskills-pr(docs/sync-system.md). - Never edit a directory that contains a
.vendoredstamp. The next update replaces it. Send the fix upstream instead (docs/vendoring.md). A vendor PR merges itself once validate passes if it just moves the pin (.vendoredandvendor.toml) or its entry saysautomerge = true(an upstream I own, like starbridge); any other one that changes skill files waits for review. - To add or remove a skill, also update its plugin in
.claude-plugin/marketplace.jsonand its row in the README table. Any change to a skill's file set needs `scripts/install-skills.sh --print-listscripts/install-skills.list
; CI fails on a stale list. A skill script that should be onPATHalso goes inHELPER_SPECSinscripts/sync-skills.sh`. - Every line in a SKILL.md must correct something the model would otherwise
get wrong. Remove lines the model would follow anyway. Order: happy path,
then gotchas (symptom, rule, reason), then "Not possible". Keep the body
as short as possible and under 120 lines; going over needs the user's
explicit approval. Put evidence in
reference/. - CI runs
scripts/validate-skills.py,scripts/vendor-skills.sh --verify, shellcheck, andclaude plugin validate . --strict.
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
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Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

