toppingout
AGENTS.md14 starsChanged 20 days agoMITView on GitHub
For coding agents that open this repository. Humans: start with README.md. Topping Out is a method and a set of skills for running AI coding agents one ticket at a time, for hours, without drifting. A foreman session plans each job and never writes product code; a cheaper builder model does the work; inspectors (one from another model family) review it; the owner gives the word for merges, pushes and other reserved acts. Every job starts a fresh session from…
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 31,439 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 repository32 other files it gives its agents.
- docs/llms-full.txtllms.txt
- docs/llms.txtllms.txt
- adjudicateSkill
- agent-councilSkill
- converseSkill
- f-archive-searchSkill
- f-archiveSkill
- f-blueprintSkill
- f-boardSkill
- f-cardSkill
- f-catchupSkill
- f-complySkill
- f-contextSkill
- f-distillSkill
- f-dreamSkill
- f-greploopSkill
- f-inspectSkill
- f-night-shiftSkill
- f-plancheckSkill
- f-scheduleSkill
- f-searchSkill
- f-setupSkill
- f-shiftSkill
- f-signoffSkill
- f-sketchSkill
- f-statusSkill
- f-surveySkill
- model-councilSkill
- orca-pi-connectSkill
- pack-reviewSkill
- speakSkill
- xreviewSkill
The file
We split this AGENTS.md into the rules it gives an agent
4 rules. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈1
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
3
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 11
Don't copy files by hand. In the repo that will hold the user's records, read skills/f-setup/SKILL.md from this checkout and follow it.
- Very specific: line 32
Run the checks for what you touched, for example node skills/f-setup/install.mjs --self-test, python skills/f-board/test_render_board.py, …
- Distinctive: line 33
Keep the house style: plain language, no em dashes, every claim backed by a file, a command or a commit.
- Very specific: line 34
Never name the builder's model or vendor in records (RULES.md).
≈ “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
For coding agents that open this repository. Humans: start with README.md.
What this is
Topping Out is a method and a set of skills for running AI coding agents one ticket at a time, for hours, without drifting. A foreman session plans each job and never writes product code; a cheaper builder model does the work; inspectors (one from another model family) review it; the owner gives the word for merges, pushes and other reserved acts. Every job starts a fresh session from files and ends with a record of what was asked, built, tested and found.
If the user wants to use Topping Out in their own project
Don't copy files by hand. In the repo that will hold the user's records, read skills/f-setup/SKILL.md from this checkout and follow it. It runs skills/f-setup/install.mjs, profiles the repo, and asks only what it can't find.
- Needs
git, Node 18+, Python 3.9+ and Bash (/f-setupchecks each). - Tested on Windows 11 with Claude Code as the foreman. macOS and desktop Linux are expected to work but are not verified yet (
SETUP.md, "Tested setup"). It also runs on a Linux server through Orca (SETUP.md§8b). - The installer copies only what a project needs (skills, agents, templates, the method). It never copies
docs/, the wiki,.github/or this file.
Where things are
| Path | What it is |
README.md | what it is and how a job runs, from the owner's side |
METHOD.md | the process the foreman follows, step by step |
RULES.md | the acts that need the owner's word, and the exceptions |
SETUP.md | installing, requirements, the tested setup |
skills/ | the skills (f- for foreman), each with a SKILL.md |
agents/ | the review lenses and helper agents the skills call |
templates/ | work orders, reviews, ledgers, handovers |
docs/ | the website at toppingout.dev, generated by scripts/build_site.py: edit the sources, never the pages |
If you are changing this package
- Run the checks for what you touched, for example
node skills/f-setup/install.mjs --self-test,python skills/f-board/test_render_board.py,node skills/f-comply/comply.test.mjs. - Keep the house style: plain language, no em dashes, every claim backed by a file, a command or a commit.
- Never name the builder's model or vendor in records (
RULES.md).
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
- Partly
- It didn't
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.