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AGENTS.md is for that global view.

by redox99 8mo ago

isodev 8mo ago
That’s not what Claude and Codex put there when you ask them to init it. Also, the global view is most definitely bigger than their tiny, loremipsum-on-steroids, context so what do you do then?
- redox99 8mo ago
  You know you can put anything there, not just what they init, right? And you can reference other doc files. I should probably stop commenting on AI posts because when I try to help others get the most out of agents I usually just get down voted like now. People want to hate on AI, not learn how to use it.
  - deleted 8mo ago
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deleted 8mo ago
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hyperadvanced 8mo ago
Am I stupid or do these agents regularly not read what’s in the agents.md file?
- redox99 8mo ago
  Each agent uses a different file, like claude.md etc (maybe you already knew that). And it requires a bit of prompt engineering like using caps for some stuff (ALWAYS), etc.
- minimaxir 8mo ago
  More recent models are better at reading and obeying constraints in AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md. GPT-5.2-Codex did a bad job of obeying my more detailed AGENTS.md files but GPT-5.3-Codex very evidently follows it well.
  - hyperadvanced 8mo ago
    Perhaps I’m not using the latest and greatest in terms of models. I tend to avoid using tools that require excessive customization like this. I find it infinitely frustrating to attempt to make these piece of shit “agents” do basic things like running the unit/integrations tests after making changes.
  - 00deadbeef 8mo ago
    Opus 4.5 successfully ignored the first line of my CLAUDE.md file last week
    - hyperadvanced 8mo ago
      Thank god it’s not just me. It really makes me feel insane reading some of the commentary online.
- ozozozd 8mo ago
  You’re not stupid. But the agents.md file is just an md file at the end of the day. We’ve been acting as if it’s assembly code that the agents execute without question or confusion, but it’s just some more text.
zozbot234 8mo ago
The 'global view' doc should be in DESIGN.md so that humans know to look for it there, and AGENTS.md should point to it. Similar for other concerns. Unless something really is solely of interest to robots, it shoudn't live directly in AGENTS.md AIUI.
8note 8mo ago
its still not truly global but that seems like a bit pie in the sky. people still do useful work without a global view, and there's still a human in the loop witth the same ole amount of global view as they ever had.
sandos 8mo ago
You can't possibly cram everything into AGENTS, also LLMs still do not perfectly give the same weight to all of its context, ie. it still ignores instructions.

AGENTS.md is for that global view.

by redox99 8mo ago

AGENTS.md is for that global view.

That’s not what Claude and Codex put there when you ask them to init it. Also, the global view is most definitely bigger than their tiny, loremipsum-on-steroids, context so what do you do then?

redox99 8mo ago
You know you can put anything there, not just what they init, right? And you can reference other doc files. I should probably stop commenting on AI posts because when I try to help others get the most out of agents I usually just get down voted like now. People want to hate on AI, not learn how to use it.
- deleted 8mo ago
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deleted 8mo ago

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hyperadvanced 8mo ago

Am I stupid or do these agents regularly not read what’s in the agents.md file?

redox99 8mo ago
Each agent uses a different file, like claude.md etc (maybe you already knew that). And it requires a bit of prompt engineering like using caps for some stuff (ALWAYS), etc.
minimaxir 8mo ago
More recent models are better at reading and obeying constraints in AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md. GPT-5.2-Codex did a bad job of obeying my more detailed AGENTS.md files but GPT-5.3-Codex very evidently follows it well.
- hyperadvanced 8mo ago
  Perhaps I’m not using the latest and greatest in terms of models. I tend to avoid using tools that require excessive customization like this. I find it infinitely frustrating to attempt to make these piece of shit “agents” do basic things like running the unit/integrations tests after making changes.
- 00deadbeef 8mo ago
  Opus 4.5 successfully ignored the first line of my CLAUDE.md file last week
  - hyperadvanced 8mo ago
    Thank god it’s not just me. It really makes me feel insane reading some of the commentary online.
ozozozd 8mo ago
You’re not stupid. But the agents.md file is just an md file at the end of the day. We’ve been acting as if it’s assembly code that the agents execute without question or confusion, but it’s just some more text.

zozbot234 8mo ago

The 'global view' doc should be in DESIGN.md so that humans know to look for it there, and AGENTS.md should point to it. Similar for other concerns. Unless something really is solely of interest to robots, it shoudn't live directly in AGENTS.md AIUI.

8note 8mo ago

its still not truly global but that seems like a bit pie in the sky. people still do useful work without a global view, and there's still a human in the loop witth the same ole amount of global view as they ever had.

sandos 8mo ago

You can't possibly cram everything into AGENTS, also LLMs still do not perfectly give the same weight to all of its context, ie. it still ignores instructions.