agents-md-sync ยท diff
git:20260802.0b29924 to git:20260802.d61e2ff
26 added, 13 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: agents-md-sync
- description: "Prune and route AGENTS.md guidance for durable, high-signal context."
+ description: "Prune and route AGENTS.md trees for durable, high-signal context."
---
# Maintain agent guidance
- Use this skill when root or scoped `AGENTS.md` files may have drifted, grown,
- or started constraining agents unnecessarily. The goal is not to document the
- whole repository. It is to keep always-loaded context small, durable, and
- useful.
+ Use this skill when the root or nested `AGENTS.md` tree may have drifted,
+ grown, or started constraining agents unnecessarily. The goal is not to
+ document the whole repository. It is to keep inherited context small,
+ durable, and useful at every scope.
## Place context deliberately
Before adding guidance, classify it:
| Destination | Admission test |
|---|---|
| Root `AGENTS.md` | Broadly applicable, non-obvious, durable, and costly when missed |
| Scoped `AGENTS.md` | The same, but limited to one subtree |
| Skill | A workflow loaded for a recognizable task |
| Existing docs or source | Detailed reference material or implementation truth |
| Nowhere | Generic advice or facts an agent can discover cheaply |
Prefer the narrowest destination. Do not repeat the same instruction at
multiple levels.
+ ## Seed scopes sparingly
+
+ A stable, major subtree may have a stub `AGENTS.md` before it has local
+ guidance. A stub provides an obvious extension point and states only that the
+ area currently adds no instructions beyond its parent. Do not copy root rules
+ into it.
+
+ Seed area boundaries, not every package. Replace a stub only when guidance
+ passes the same admission test as any other scoped instruction.
+
## Audit procedure
- 1. Read the affected guide fully and inspect its Git diff and relevant
+ 1. Inventory the root and nested guidance tree. Read the affected guide, its
+ parents, and its children fully; inspect their Git diff and relevant
history. Use commit history to find likely drift, not as a requirement to
summarize every intervening commit.
2. Check concrete claims against their owning source, manifest, tests, or
official dependency contract. Distinguish shipped behavior from plans.
3. Identify content that is duplicated, readily discoverable, local to one
area, task-specific, temporary, ideological, or phrased more absolutely
than the underlying risk requires.
4. Remove obsolete context. Move local guidance to a scoped guide and
workflows to skills. Link to detailed references rather than compressing
- their contents into root.
- 5. Add new root guidance only when a recurring or high-cost failure cannot be
- prevented more precisely by code, tests, schemas, tooling, or scoped
- context.
+ their contents into a parent guide. Leave intentional stubs free of local
+ rules.
+ 5. Add new guidance only when a recurring or high-cost failure cannot be
+ prevented more precisely by code, tests, schemas, or tooling. Place it at
+ the narrowest stable scope.
6. Read the result as one instruction set. Resolve overlap and conflicts, and
prefer clear outcomes over prescribed agent process.
## Editing principles
- Prefer deletion and routing over denser prose. A soft size target can prompt
review, but do not optimize for a hard line count.
- Hard language is appropriate for security, destructive operations, data
isolation, provenance, authentication, and publish integrity. Elsewhere,
preserve room for task context and engineering judgment.
- Specs, issues, PRs, mockups, tests, and other repositories can all be useful
references. Do not present planned behavior as shipped, and prefer
executable or source-backed evidence for current contracts.
- Avoid freshness dates that imply more verification than Git history proves.
- Keep `AGENTS.md` canonical and preserve the `CLAUDE.md` symlink.
## Finish
- Check the changed guides, their links, and their scope boundaries. Confirm
- that removing a detail did not remove a genuine high-risk gotcha, that moved
- guidance is discoverable from its parent, and that:
+ Check the changed guides, their links, inheritance, and scope boundaries.
+ Confirm that removing a detail did not remove a genuine high-risk gotcha,
+ that moved guidance is discoverable from its parent, and that stubs have not
+ accumulated generic rules. Then verify:
```bash
test -L CLAUDE.md && test "$(readlink CLAUDE.md)" = "AGENTS.md"
git diff --check -- AGENTS.md '**/AGENTS.md' .agents/agents-md-sync/SKILL.md
```