Agent instruction files
Skill Amey-Thakur/AI-SKILLS/skills/ai-coding-tools/agent-instruction-files
Write the repository instruction file that coding agents read, so they follow project conventions without being told each session. Use when setting up a repository for Claude Code, Antigravity, Cursor, or any agent reading AGENTS.md.From its SKILL.md
npx -y skills add Amey-Thakur/AI-SKILLS --skill agent-instruction-filesAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
One thing to look at
- 5 stars5 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
SKILL.md
2.0 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it
Agent instruction files
Coding agents read a repository instruction file at the start of every session. It is the highest-leverage document in the repository, because it shapes every subsequent action, and most are either empty or a wall of text the agent cannot act on.
Method
- Write instructions, not documentation. What to do and what to avoid, since prose explaining the architecture is less useful to an agent than a rule it can follow.
- Cover the conventions an agent cannot infer. Commit format, testing commands, directory meaning, and the quality gates that must pass before a change is done.
- State the commands exactly. The precise build, test, and lint invocations, because an agent guessing them wastes turns and sometimes runs the wrong thing.
- Name what must never happen. Files not to edit, commands not to run, and actions requiring human approval (see agent-delegation-protocol).
- Keep it short enough to be read carefully. It consumes context every session, and a long file dilutes the rules that matter (see prompt-structure).
- Use the filename each tool expects. AGENTS.md is widely read, with tool-specific files layering on top, and one canonical file imported by the others avoids drift.
- Update it when an agent gets something wrong. Every correction you repeat twice belongs in the file rather than in the conversation.
Boundaries
Instruction files guide behaviour probabilistically and are not enforcement; anything critical needs a check in CI (see policy-as-code). They are read at session start, so mid-session changes may not apply. Different tools support different formats and import mechanisms.