Reading up on AGENTS.md

An AGENTS.md file configures AI coding agent behavior, and should be kept minimal using progressive disclosure—only essential instructions like project description and package manager belong at the root, with other rules delegated to separate files.

Intent debt—the missing externalized rationale for why a system is built—is the most expensive kind of debt because AI agents cannot generate it, and its cost compounds as teams rely on more agents.

A developer shares anonymized global instructions for AI coding agents, covering behavior, commit style, and pushback rules.

Using skills, AGENTS.md, and GitHub Actions, OpenAI accelerated OSS maintenance in their Agents SDK repos, merging 457 PRs in three months, up from 316.

High-performing engineering teams in 2026 are defined by taste, discipline, and leverage—not by AI tool choice—and a small set of exemplars like Linear, Cursor, Vercel, and Stripe share structural practices like writing-driven culture, design-engineer fusion, spec-driven development, tiny teams, and ruthless quality habits.