AGENTS.md is a team delivery contract

Coding-agent quality depends heavily on whether the repository has written context and acceptance rules.

Useful for: Engineering teams, open-source projects, AI agent service firms

OpenAI developer tooling interface showing project context, tool connections, and inspection results
Image source: OpenAI Apps SDK.

Where the workflow shifted

AGENTS.md gives agents repository structure, commands, tests, and constraints, which turns team defaults into repeatable review rules.

Document repo layout, install commands, test commands, style rules, forbidden actions, and the definition of done so every delegated task starts with the same operating context.

Tool names are not outcomes

The signal matters when it changes how a team ships, reviews, or recovers work, not when it only names another tool.

Check permissions and failure

  • Add AGENTS.md to one real repository and require every agent PR to reference its tests and definition of done
  • Keep the test narrow: one low-risk task or tool entry before connecting permissions, logs, failure handling, and human takeover to production

What still needs proof

Without repository instructions, the agent falls back to generic assumptions and pushes review cost back to the team. Keep the original source open so the announcement, the evidence, and this site's interpretation stay separate.

AGENTS.mdrepository instructionsacceptance criteria