Cross-Vendor + Checkpoint

Make it cross-vendor

Keep AGENTS.md canonical and give Claude Code its expected filename via a symlink:

mv CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md
ln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md
git add AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md && git commit -m "Add AGENTS.md"

One source of truth; every agent on the team, whatever the vendor, reads the same instructions.

Editing in-session

When the file drifts, you don’t need to leave the conversation:

/memory

opens the memory file for editing directly.

Tip

✓ Checkpoint. Start a fresh session and ask: “What test command should you use in this repo, and which directories are off-limits?” The agent should answer from your file, without searching. If it searches, the information is missing or buried.

Exercises

1. The lie detector. Add a deliberately wrong build command, start a fresh session, and ask the agent to build. Watch it trust your file. Fix it. Lesson: AGENTS.md is authoritative, so keep it true.
2. Monorepo scoping. Create packages/api/AGENTS.md with one API-specific rule. Confirm the agent applies it when working in that package.
3. The audit. For each line, ask: “would the agent get this wrong without it?” Delete every line where the answer is no.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Agent ignores an instruction	Buried in prose	Make it a short bullet under a clear heading
File ballooning past ~100 lines	Procedure creep	Move procedures to skills (Part 3)
Other agents don’t pick it up	Tool reads a different filename	Keep AGENTS.md canonical; symlink the vendor name
/init wrote nothing useful	Empty or unusual repo	Write it by hand; /init is a bootstrapper, not a requirement