maintain-agents
Skill0 starsChanged 4 months agoMITView on GitHub
Review and prune the ## Learned User Preferences and ## Learned Workspace Facts sections in AGENTS.md. AI IDEs (Cursor, Copilot) append entries to these sections automatically — they accumulate stale, basic, or redundant items over time and need periodic de-slopping.
2 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- finografic/ai-skillsword for word, first seen Aug 23, 2026
- finografic/ai-agent-configword for word, first seen Aug 13, 2026
Other versions2 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 2
- finografic/ai-agent-config★ 0100% same
- finografic/ai-skills★ 0100% same
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 0
None found.
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository5 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- .github/copilot-instructions.mdCopilot instructions
- .cursor/rules/agents-entry.mdcCursor rule
- .cursor/rules/git-operations.mdcCursor rule
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
7 rules. About 0 are common, 7 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈7
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 19
After a long project phase — stale facts accumulate
- Distinctive: line 23
Read the full file. Identify every bullet in:
- Distinctive: line 56
Look for entries that overlap or repeat the same idea in slightly different words.
- Distinctive: line 67
Ask the user to confirm or adjust before writing anything.
- Distinctive: line 71
After confirmation, edit AGENTS.md in place:
- Distinctive: line 77
Do not reorder the surviving entries unless the user asks.
- Distinctive: line 86
Keep the message factual. No bullet lists in the commit body — it is a housekeeping commit.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill 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
Maintain AGENTS.md — Prune Learned Sections
AI IDEs (especially Cursor) append bullet points to ## Learned User Preferences and
## Learned Workspace Facts after each session. Over time these sections bloat with
entries that are basic, redundant, outdated, or already covered by instruction files.
This skill describes the review-and-prune procedure.
When to run
- User asks to "clean up", "review", "de-slop", or "prune" AGENTS.md
- Either Learned section exceeds ~8 entries
- After a long project phase — stale facts accumulate
Step 1 — Read the current AGENTS.md
Read the full file. Identify every bullet in:
## Learned User Preferences## Learned Workspace Facts
Note: these sections may be absent (nothing to do), or there may be only one of them.
Step 2 — Evaluate each entry
Apply these criteria to every bullet. Be decisive — when in doubt, remove.
Remove if the entry…
- States something any competent TypeScript / Node developer would know without being
told (e.g. "prefer
constoverlet", "use async/await", "always handle errors") - Duplicates content already covered by a linked instruction file in
## Rules — Global(read the instruction file briefly if unsure) - References a file, function, flag, or feature that no longer exists in the repo
- Describes a one-off workaround for a bug that has since been fixed
- Is a generic best practice that applies to every JS/TS project equally
- Restates something already explicit elsewhere in AGENTS.md (e.g. in Rules sections)
- Is a formatting micro-rule already covered by the linter / oxfmt config
Keep if the entry…
- Documents a non-obvious project-specific pattern that would trip up an AI without knowing it
- Records a user preference that contradicts a common default (e.g. unusual naming convention)
- Describes a tooling quirk specific to this workspace not derivable from the code
- Notes a subtle distinction — e.g. two similar utilities that are easy to confuse
- Has an implied history: it was written because an AI got it wrong, and it would get it wrong again
Step 3 — Identify consolidation opportunities
Look for entries that overlap or repeat the same idea in slightly different words. Merge them into a single, more precise bullet. Fewer, sharper entries beat many vague ones.
Step 4 — Present the proposed changes
Before editing, list:
- Remove — each entry to delete, with a one-phrase reason
- Merge — any consolidations, showing before → after
- Keep — count of entries that survive unchanged
Ask the user to confirm or adjust before writing anything.
Step 5 — Apply the changes
After confirmation, edit AGENTS.md in place:
- Delete removed bullets
- Replace merged bullets with the consolidated version
- Preserve all other content exactly (headings, order, other sections)
Do not reorder the surviving entries unless the user asks.
Step 6 — Commit
git add AGENTS.md
git commit -m "chore: prune Learned sections in AGENTS.md"Keep the message factual. No bullet lists in the commit body — it is a housekeeping commit.
Does it work?
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- It worked
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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.

