agents-md

• IS: auditing, scoring, refactoring, and writing AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / CLAUDE.local.md files agents load at session start.
• IS NOT: authoring SKILL.md files (use agent-skills-creator), project docs or READMEs (use docs-writing or readme-creator), or mining session history (use the external cadence-advise skill where installed; this skill audits the file as-is).

AGENTS.md files are execution contracts, not knowledge bases. Two tests catch the two ways a line fails.

• Dead weight: “Would removing this cause the agent to make a mistake?” If no, cut it; bloat makes agents ignore the rules that matter.
• Harmful precision: “Is this wrong on any plausible task in this repo?” A prohibition that is wrong one task in ten is still obeyed on that task, and the agent cannot tell that this is the exception. State the outcome you want and let the surrounding code pick the path. NEVER write comments becomes match the comment density of the file you are editing: shorter, no exception list to maintain, and correct in a densely commented file without being told.

Absolutes still earn their place for safety, data loss, format contracts, and rules this repo’s agents have actually been observed to break.

AGENTS.md is the tool-agnostic source of truth. Claude Code loads AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, and CLAUDE.local.md natively at any directory level, so Claude Code alone needs no symlink. A CLAUDE.md -> AGENTS.md symlink is still correct when the repo also targets tools that read only CLAUDE.md; it keeps one source of truth instead of two files to drift. If only a CLAUDE.md exists, recommend mv CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md.

Reference Files

Writing From Scratch

No file exists? Skip the audit. Gather real commands from the manifest (package.json, Makefile, CI config), pick a skeleton from references/templates.md, fill it with verified commands and known gotchas, then validate against references/quick-checklist.md before delivering.

Audit Workflow

Copy this checklist to track progress:

Audit Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Discover files
- [ ] Step 2: Select audit mode (quick or full)
- [ ] Step 3: Run audit and score
- [ ] Step 4: Report findings with score table
- [ ] Step 5: Propose minimal diffs
- [ ] Step 6: Validate changes
- [ ] Step 7: Apply and report before/after scores

Step 1: Discover files

find . \( -name "AGENTS.md" -o -name "CLAUDE.md" -o -name "CLAUDE.local.md" \) 2>/dev/null | sort

Also check ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (applies to every session). For monorepos, include workspace-level files. Audit each level independently: root holds universal rules, child files hold directory-specific rules (see the placement hierarchy in references/root-content-guidance.md).

Step 2: Select audit mode

• Quick (default): 12 checks from references/quick-checklist.md, target >= 10/12.
• Full: 49 checks from references/quality-criteria.md, target >= 91% of applicable points (grade A). Use when the quick audit fails, the file gates a high-risk repo, or full scoring is requested.

Step 3: Run audit and score

Score each root file independently; exclude N/A checks from the denominator.

Step 4: Report findings

Output a concise report before any edits:

## AGENTS.md Audit Report
 
| File | Mode | Score | Grade | Key Issues |
|------|------|-------|-------|------------|
| ./AGENTS.md | Quick | 6/10 | Fail | Missing test command, stale path, doc-heavy section |

Every issue in the table must map to a Step 5 diff; no vague findings.

Step 5: Propose minimal diffs

In priority order:

1. Fix broken or stale commands; bugs, not style.
2. Remove generic, duplicate, or obsolete guidance, restatements of what the harness already does, and facts auto-memory owns.
3. Rewrite blanket prohibitions as the outcome they were protecting; keep the absolute only where the harmful-precision test clears it.
4. Move non-universal detail behind @path/to/file.md imports.
5. Add emphasis (“IMPORTANT:”, “YOU MUST”) only on critical rules agents skip.

Show each change as a diff snippet with a one-line rationale. Apply only after the user confirms.

Step 6: Validate changes

1. Smoke-run core commands (dev, test, build, lint/typecheck) where the environment allows; otherwise verify the script exists in the manifest and note the limitation.
2. Check every linked and @imported path resolves.
3. Confirm no contradictory rules remain across levels (home, root, child), against installed skills (.claude/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/), or against harness defaults. Where the overlap is deliberate, the file must say who wins, so the agent is told precedence instead of arbitrating it every task.
4. Issues found: revise, then validate again. Never proceed on “looks right”.

Step 7: Apply and report

Apply approved edits, re-score with the same checklist, report before/after scores and line counts. Per future PR, add at most one new gotcha, only if it prevented or fixed a real mistake.

Gotchas

• @import lines don’t evaluate inside code spans or fenced blocks: a real import wrapped in backticks silently never loads, while example imports inside fences are safe to show.
• @import chains stop resolving at 5 hops; deeper content silently disappears from context.
• Child-directory AGENTS.md files load on demand when the agent works in that subtree, not at session start, so a universal rule placed only in a child is invisible to most tasks. Promote it to root.
• Don’t put project-specific commands in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md; it loads every session, so one project’s npm run dev becomes noise (or a wrong command) everywhere else.
• Don’t audit CLAUDE.local.md as strictly as AGENTS.md; it’s gitignored personal config, so flag only broken commands and contradictions with the shared file.
• Don’t strip emphasis markers (IMPORTANT, YOU MUST) during a density cut; they exist because plain phrasing was already ignored once.
• Content auto-memory owns (user preferences, personal feedback, evolving project status) collects in CLAUDE.md from the old #-hotkey habit. It loads every session, isn’t repo knowledge, and drifts silently because nothing in the codebase contradicts it. Cut it to memory or CLAUDE.local.md.
• A rule duplicating harness behavior isn’t free: the agent reconciles it against what the harness already does before it can act, and pays that on every task. “Always read a file before editing it” is a whole reconciliation for zero behavior change.
• A passing quick score doesn’t prove commands run; stale commands hide behind checklist passes. Step 6 smoke-runs aren’t optional.
• Don’t rewrite a whole file when targeted diffs would pass; full rewrites destroy battle-tested wording and inflate review burden.

Related Skills

• agent-skills-creator: authoring and improving SKILL.md files (different format and rules).
• External cadence-advise skill where installed: proposes AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md edits from observed session history; complements this skill’s file-first audit.
• readme-creator / docs-writing: human-facing documentation; AGENTS.md content that belongs in docs should move there.
• codebase-architecture (Harden mode): the rest of the repo an agent works in. A rule a linter can enforce belongs there as an exit code, not here as prose, and it owns the docs tree this file indexes.
• Claude Code’s /doctor command: runs Anthropic’s own rightsizing pass over skills and CLAUDE.md files. Complementary automated triage; it doesn’t run the commands, so it never replaces Step 6.