Evaluating AGENTS.md: are they helpful for coding agents?
9 days ago
- #context-files
- #coding-agents
- #software-engineering
- Evaluates the effectiveness of repository-level context files (like AGENTS.md) for coding agents.
- Finds that context files reduce task success rates and increase inference costs by over 20%.
- Observes that context files encourage broader exploration (e.g., more testing and file traversal).
- Concludes that unnecessary requirements from context files make tasks harder.
- Recommends human-written context files should describe only minimal requirements.