alt Hacker NewsClaude Code now reads AGENTS.md if there is no Claude.md
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I recently had Claude Fable set up a new project for me and I pointed it at some existing projects to use as a guide on how I like to structure things. It created, unprompted, an AGENTS.md file and a CLAUDE.md symlink to AGENTS.md
I didn't even have that symlink in any other project - it just did it. I think it saw that one of the projects I already had was set up by Codex and that project had an AGENTS.md so perhaps it inferred that I was using both Claude and Codex, so it was politely covering both? Or maybe a recent change made this behavior default?
I was surprised and I hope they continue to seek standards.
Don’t get too excited, Claude code still won’t detect skills on .agents/skills.
Once I asked, puckishly, Claude Code to “follow the instructions in this directory” when there was only an AGENTS.md there.
In the manner of someone finding a dead mouse and holding it up for examination CC said it could find no instructions but perhaps it should check this AGENTS.md file.
Remember they didn't do this because they wanted to help community, they did it because community was angry and they were losing users to other harnesses.
Doesn't look like Anthropic care about dev community
This is simply the obvious, non-stupid thing to do, like Apple switching to USB-C.
CC is such a bloated POS by this point that only full on AGI could have implemented this feature. Congrats guys. Maybe with Super Intelligence they will be able to make it actually respect the instructions in there too.
LOL https://thenewstack.io/shopify-claude-code-agentsmd/
> “I’m thinking about banning Claude Code at Shopify until they change their mind and read AGENTS.md and .agents/skills etc.,” Lütke posted Tuesday on X.
Caught myself about to praise this, but it's the absolute bare minimum.
Time to delete the symlinks
Everyone sharing the 513 ways you can already do this is entirely missing the point. Standards matter and there's very few things in the AI world everyone agrees on and this is one of them. .agents/skills is another and anthropic is still holding out there.
Claude also checks your settings.json first, and if it sees a default there it then prefers that over anything in CLAUDE.md. This is particularly nefarious as they ship logic to presume a default if a setting is not there in settings.json, even if there are instructions in CLAUDE.md for exactly that.
For instance, say you added "do not add 'Made with Claude Code' in any issues, pull requests or wiki entries" in your CLAUDE.md. So far, so good.
Well the latest update now looks for something in your settings.json. Since you don't know about it, it is not set. Claude then says "not explicitly set, so now it is true by default". It completely ignores your CLAUDE.md.
Wait, what?
You shouldn't be shipping logic that arbitrarily redefines the behavior of the program, especially if your new logic actually ignores your own configuration or directives.
The madlads finally did it, now if only I could use my Claude sub in other harnesses without risking getting banned.
Still can't read what their models vomit at me.
Finalllyyyy!! We need industry wide standards. I come from the 3d industry and oh god changing softwares and adapting to different hotkeys it's a pain. I have always thought every industry should be standardized for the sake of the users.
Meanwhile, I just setup codex for the first time (to try Astra) and it offered to load my Claude and Cursor conversations and claims to even do it in a way where it says in sync if you use both. The only reason to use Claude Code is the 20x usage of the 200$ plan is ridiculous value if you have the need for that volume.
Finally doing something standards-compliant instead of forcing users into a proprietary workflow.
Oh, finally! Time to delete symlinks
That said, AGENTS.md doesn't seem like a good name, right?, technically, it's an instructions file read by a single agent, not necessarily for agents, so it always struck me as a bit odd
But until the next standardization, keeping just AGENTS.md is the best approach.
My claude.md:
# CLAUDE.md
This project uses `AGENTS.md` as its agent instruction file (kept provider-agnostic). Treat any `AGENTS.md` file exactly as you would a `CLAUDE.md` file — at the root level and in any subdirectory you are working in.
@AGENTS.md
People still use Claude?
I wonder when they'll finally fix the VS Code plugin to not constantly dump your current file into the context.
I gotta hand it to programmers (or whatever we call ourselves now) for sticking to principle on something this trivial.
It was either this or Claude had to become a generic term like sheetrock.
Finally, I can delete `sync-agent-docs.sh`, which recursively symlinked AGENTS.md to GEMINI.md and CLAUDE.md...
Gotta say, it is hilarious that this is the current top HN post. I feel like it's gotta say something about our current AI zeitgeist, that there is such vigorous attention on a seemingly-minor change. Feels like something is on the tip of my tongue but I can't name it at the moment.
If anyone wants to write/link a much better-thought-out post, I'm all ears!
Just to touch on the wording of "in a project with no CLAUDE.md" does that mean user-level ~/AGENTS.md or ~/.agents/AGENTS.md isnt supported?
Thanks guys, you did the right thing.
Better late than never... Now it's time for Claude Code to load skills from .agents/skills!
This is not a news to celebrate, they must follow standards
Wow..... Progress and technical innovation right here!!!
Wild that it didn’t already do this
This allows us to remove our one line Claude.md files that just say "AGENTS.MD"
Commoditization commoditizes commodities.
First feature to borrow after peaking into openai repos? ))
Hell froze over?
finally! Now this might sound sorta off-topic but i really wonder how people feel about skills.md, skill.md, skills.sh domains...
the fact that they're owned by different companies (ok vercel is a little less random) still leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth when thinking about the fact that they should all point to 1 place about how to create and find skills for ai agents?!
Before anyone even contemplates if Anthropic has any good intentions, remember, this is how petty and small minded they are.
Truly the last people you want with this kind of power.
Forcing their own proprietary filename was clearly a business decision (it's free advertising, along with commit co-authorship). I wonder what made them go back on it.
great, one less step for me.
I was using my claude.md file as a pointer to my agents.md file
Truly incredible innovation.
Thank Christ
Great. Now if they could support the `~/.agents/skills` path next like everyone else does that would be even better.
Only took them a year and a half of everyone complaining to finally do the right thing.
Congrats.
I just wiped all agents and it’s always readme.md
So far I've been managing this with a symlink.
Same with skills, symlink to skills at .claude/skills
The fact that it took this long to add such a basic feature is a disgrace. I’m not even remotely satisfied. Bailed on Claude ages ago. Rolling Codex, Gemini, and Qwen3.8 30B. The only way I’m going back to Anthropic is if they drop and Culture Series mind.