Agents

AGENTS. md is an open, standard Markdown format that gives AI coding agents a dedicated place to find project-specific context and instructions. Used by more than 60,000 open-source projects, it serves as a predictable companion to README files: READMEs can remain focused on people, while AGENTS.

md records practical guidance for agents, such as setup steps, build and test commands, coding conventions, security considerations, and contribution requirements. The format is not proprietary and has no required fields, so teams can tailor its contents to their projects. In large monorepos, nested files can provide instructions for individual subprojects, with the closest file taking precedence.

AGENTS. md is compatible with a growing ecosystem of coding tools, including Codex, Jules, Cursor, Aider, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and others. The site helps developers adopt the format through usage guidance, sample files, and examples from open-source repositories.

Developed through collaboration across the coding-agent ecosystem, AGENTS. md is now stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation