Agent.Md

AGENT.md: The Universal Agent Configuration File

**Author:** Geoffrey Huntley

**Organization:** Sourcegraph, Inc.

**Status:** Informational

**Date:** July 2025

Abstract

AI-powered coding tools are reshaping how we build software, but they're scattered across a mess of configuration files.

This document defines `AGENT.md`, a standardized format that lets your codebase speak directly to any agentic coding tool.

Table of Contents

[1\. Introduction](#introduction)

[2\. Specification](#specification)

[2.1\. Multiple AGENT.md Files](#multiple-agent-files)

[2.2\. File References](#file-references)

[3\. Implementation Guidelines](#implementation-guidelines)

[4\. Migration from Legacy Configuration Files](#migration)

[4.1\. Migration Commands](#migration-commands)

[4.2\. AGENT.md Content Structure](#content-structure)

[4.3\. Example AGENT.md File](#example-file)

[5\. Tool Integration](#tool-integration)

[6\. IANA Considerations](#iana-considerations)

[7\. References](#references)

[8\. Authors' Addresses](#authors-addresses)

1\. Introduction

Everything is changing. Developer tooling companies are building AI agents that can read, understand, and modify entire codebases but here's the thing: they need to know how your project works. What commands to run, what conventions to follow, where the important stuff lives.

Right now it's a mess for consumers. They have to maintain separate config files for each tool they want to use: `.cursorrules`, `.windsurfrules`, `.clauderules`, and a dozen other files scattered across tools. Every other day another agent is brought to market with its own convention which worsens the mess.

`AGENT.md` changes this. One file, any agent. Your codebase gets a universal voice that every AI coding tool can understand.

The Amp team is working with other agentic coding tool makers to clean up this mess of filenames. We like AGENT.md because we own the domain name for and we are committed to keeping it