---
type: Glossary Term
title: "Coding agent instruction files"
description: "AGENTS.md is an open repository and origin convention (agents.md, stewarded under the Linux Foundation AAIF) for placing machine-targeted instructions—build commands, test runners, architectural invariants, and endpoint conventions—at the root of a git repository or website (/AGENTS.md)."
resource: "https://agenticweb.wiki/terms/coding-agent-instructions/"
tags: ["glossary", "read"]
status: stable
generated: { by: agenticweb-builder/1.0, at: 2026-10-23T00:00:00Z }
verified: { by: process:agenticweb-engine, at: 2026-10-23T00:00:00Z }
stale_after: 2026-11-22T00:00:00Z
sources:
  - id: ref-1
    resource: "https://agents.md"
    last_modified: 2026-09-05T00:00:00Z
  - id: ref-2
    resource: "https://agenticweb.wiki/AGENTS.md"
    last_modified: 2026-10-15T00:00:00Z
---

# Coding agent instruction files

**`AGENTS.md`** is an open repository and origin convention (`agents.md`, stewarded under the Linux Foundation AAIF) for placing machine-targeted instructions—build commands, test runners, architectural invariants, and endpoint conventions—at the root of a git repository or website (`/AGENTS.md`). While `README.md` is written for human contributors and `/llms.txt` is an index of documentation pages, `AGENTS.md` (alongside tool-specific files such as `CLAUDE.md` and `GEMINI.md`) acts as the procedural constitution for coding and web agents operating against that codebase or domain. Used by: agents-md.

# Knowledge Graph

* **Related standards**: [AGENTS.md](/okf/protocols/agents-md.md), [llms.txt](/okf/protocols/llms-txt.md)

[^ref-1]: https://agents.md (https://agents.md)
[^ref-2]: https://agenticweb.wiki/AGENTS.md (https://agenticweb.wiki/AGENTS.md)