AGENTS.md
A global coding agent directive that standardizes behavior and enforces validation.
Install & Use
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Help me install this AI Skill: AGENTS.md. It is used for: A global coding agent directive that standardizes behavior and enforces validation. Full Skill content: https://321skill.com/skills/agents-md-anbeeld/raw/index.md Read that page and install it.
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This Skill addresses three common issues with AI coding agents: coding without first gathering evidence, uncontrolled expansion of task scope, and submitting changes without validation. In real-world development, developers often encounter agents that skip research and jump straight to implementation, quietly refactor existing code, or output modifications that haven't passed tests, leading to rework and errors. This document provides a set of global directives that force the agent to follow a fixed sequence of "explore → gather evidence → scan skills → implement → validate" at every step, using strict rules to constrain behavioral boundaries.
Usage is simple. You just need to copy the AGENTS.md file from the repository to your AI agent's configuration directory (e.g., the location of CLAUDE.md for Claude Code) for it to take effect immediately. If you use multiple agents, the project provides sync.sh and sync.ps1 scripts to synchronize the same directive to the configuration locations of various tools (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, etc.) with one click. Furthermore, for agents that support @ imports (like Claude Code), you can also write @AGENTS.md in your CLAUDE.md file to reference it directly, eliminating the need for copying.
It is well-suited for teams or individuals who frequently use AI coding agents for code generation, refactoring, and debugging—especially those who have already encountered problems like agents "hallucinating code," "expanding the scope of modifications without authorization," or "relying on unverified information." For users managing multiple AI agents simultaneously (e.g., Claude, Gemini, Codex), this file can unify the behavioral standards across all agents, reducing the cost of manual review.
It is recommended to adopt this file uniformly within a team and encourage members to add overriding rules in their local CLAUDE.md files based on project specifics. Note that it is primarily designed for coding agent scenarios; if your workflow does not involve AI-assisted programming, it is not necessary. Additionally, the rules in the file strongly constrain the behavior of "executing without evidence," which may slightly reduce the response speed of some agent models but can significantly improve output quality.
Key Features
Unlike conventional CLAUDE.md templates, Anbeeld's AGENTS.md not only contains a list of rules but also enforces a strict execution sequence of "evidence-first → parallelization → validation." It comes with cross-platform synchronization scripts that support one-click deployment to over a dozen tools like Claude, Codex, and Gemini, whereas similar templates are usually tailored to a single tool and lack a validation mechanism.
Limitations
Relies on AI agents' support for reading AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md files. Some agents (e.g., Cursor, Windsurf) only recognize project-level files, requiring manual copying to each repository. Furthermore, local project directives will override any conflicting rules in this file.
FAQ
What happens if this file conflicts with a project's own CLAUDE.md?
AGENTS.md explicitly states that local project directives take precedence over this file. Therefore, any rules you write in a project-level CLAUDE.md will override the global directive. It is recommended to use AGENTS.md as a foundational standard and add supplements or overrides at the project level as needed.
Which AI agents or tools are supported?
It supports all coding agents that read AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md files, including Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, and others. The scripts can synchronize the directive to mainstream tools such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, and Windsurf.
Installation guide for AI assistants
If your AI coding assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, TRAE etc.) can see this page, send it this message to auto-install:
Visit https://321skill.com/skills/agents-md-anbeeld/raw/index.md to read the original Skill definition (Markdown format) for AGENTS.md, and install it according to the instructions.
Raw Markdown URL for AI: /skills/agents-md-anbeeld/raw/index.md