{
 "url": "https://agenticweb.wiki/compare/anthropic-agent-skills-format-vs-agents-md/",
 "title": "Agent Skills vs AGENTS.md: differences, status, adoption",
 "description": "Agent Skills vs AGENTS.md: The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. Side-by-side step, governance, status, version…",
 "markdown_url": "https://agenticweb.wiki/compare/anthropic-agent-skills-format-vs-agents-md/index.md",
 "markdown": "# Agent Skills vs AGENTS.md\n\nThe map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. They answer different questions: Agent Skills is a step 5 (Act) standard, AGENTS.md step 4 (Read), so they are not substitutes.\n\n[5 Act](/category/act/) [Agent Skills](/protocols/anthropic-agent-skills-format/) · [4 Read](/category/read/) [AGENTS.md](/protocols/agents-md/)\n\n|  | [Agent Skills](/protocols/anthropic-agent-skills-format/) | [AGENTS.md](/protocols/agents-md/) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Lifecycle step | 5 Act: Do something for me | 4 Read: Give me the content |\n| Answers | How can reusable, on-demand procedural instructions and bundled resources be packaged so any compatible agent can load and run them? | What build, test, and convention instructions should a coding agent follow in this repository? |\n| Governed by | Originated by Anthropic and donated on 22 October 2026 to the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF); developed in the open at github.com/agentskills/agentskills alongside MCP and A2A | Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a Linux Foundation project |\n| Status (issuer's words) | Active open format under the Linux Foundation Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), adopted across 35+ agent products | \"An open format... regardless of which coding agent you use\"; explicitly not proprietary to any one tool |\n| Version | unversioned living spec (agentskills.io/specification) | current site guidance (living document) (2026-09) |\n| Form / transport | document format | well-known file |\n| Found at | /.well-known/agent-skills/index.json | AGENTS.md |\n| Implementation | multi-implementation | multi-implementation — agents.md (site claims over 60,000 AGENTS.md files across open-source GitHub repositories, via a path:AGENTS.md NOT is:fork NOT is:archived code search) |\n| Evidence | 3 verified | 2 reported, 1 verified |\n| Primary use case | Describe an agent's capabilities | Serve readable content to agents |\n| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |\n| Specification | [https://agentskills.io/specification](https://agentskills.io/specification) | [https://agents.md](https://agents.md) |\n\n## When to use which\n\n- Choose Agent Skills when your question is “How can reusable, on-demand procedural instructions and bundled resources be packaged so any compatible agent can load and run them?” and you accept its maturity: status \"Active open format under the Linux Foundation Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), adopted across 35+ agent products\", implementation multi-implementation.\n- Choose AGENTS.md when your question is “What build, test, and convention instructions should a coding agent follow in this repository?” and you accept its maturity: status \"\"An open format... regardless of which coding agent you use\"; explicitly not proprietary to any one tool\", implementation multi-implementation (agents.md (site claims over 60,000 AGENTS.md files across open-source GitHub repositories, via a path:AGENTS.md NOT is:fork NOT is:archived code search)).\n\nGuidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.\n\n## Read the full articles\n\n- [Agent Skills](/protocols/anthropic-agent-skills-format/): How can reusable, on-demand procedural instructions and bundled resources be packaged so any compatible agent can load and run them?\n- [AGENTS.md](/protocols/agents-md/): What build, test, and convention instructions should a coding agent follow in this repository?\n\nAsk the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).\n\n[anthropic-agent-skills-format.json](/data/protocols/anthropic-agent-skills-format.json) · [agents-md.json](/data/protocols/agents-md.json) · [Markdown](/compare/anthropic-agent-skills-format-vs-agents-md/index.md)\n"
}