How to Keep Your AGENTS.md Accurate and Useful as Code Evolves
AGENTS.md files — used to instruct AI coding agents about a repository — tend to become outdated as soon as the underlying code changes, causing agents to act on false information. A practical approach to preventing this involves grounding every line in verifiable repo facts, running all listed commands to confirm they work, and updating the file in the same pull request as any related code change. Developers are advised to reference existing linter and formatter configs directly rather than restating rules in prose, since config files are the true source of truth and prose descriptions drift. Clear guardrails should specify what an agent is always allowed to do, what requires human approval, and what is strictly off-limits, with a concrete definition of done tied to passing commands. Treating AGENTS.md as living code — with PR template reminders or CI checks to enforce updates — is presented as the key discipline for building agent trust over time.
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