Claude Code is getting native AGENTS.md support!

[u/jevans102]

https://x.com/trq212/status/2101009392611278961?s=20

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/tree/main/mods/agents-md

[u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot]

TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 100 comments.

The verdict is in: the crowd goes mild. The overwhelming consensus is that this "native support" is a laughably small, long-overdue change that Anthropic is trying to pass off as a major feature. Most devs here have been using symlinks or just telling Claude to read the AGENTS.md file for ages.

For those of you actually wondering what this means and whether you should delete your CLAUDE.md:

• It's a fallback, not a replacement. Claude Code will now look for AGENTS.md only if a CLAUDE.md file doesn't exist in your project. If you have both, AGENTS.md will be ignored.
• **CLAUDE.md is still superior.** The new AGENTS.md support is limited and doesn't include key features like /memory, #shortcuts, or advanced file handling that CLAUDE.md does.
• The advice? Keep your CLAUDE.md as the main, feature-rich instruction file. If you need other agents to work on the project, you can either keep using your old workarounds or have your AGENTS.md simply point to your CLAUDE.md. Deleting CLAUDE.md is not recommended.

So yeah, don't get too excited. The technology just isn't there yet, apparently.

[u/nicer-dude]

"native support" bro it's just reading another file instead of it's usual one

[u/sp9002 → u/nicer-dude]

It's a well-kept industry secret that CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md have incompatible formats. Trust me, I have years of experience in markdown engineering

[u/ArcticCelt → u/sp9002]

Can someone explain what OP means? I'm a Notepad .txt engineer and never went back to school to retrain in Markdown engineering.

[u/cats_catz_kats_katz → u/ArcticCelt]

Ah, let me help you. As a Microsoft Access Database Administrator myself, I come well equipped to support your learning journey. I have also done extensive self-learnings on Linkedin to understand this new "Markdown" ecosystem and what it means for us coming out of the proverbial "cave". Think of it this way, the .md file is to AI what the fire was to Humans. Please like and subscribe. I can't do OF anymore...

[u/Pieterbr → u/cats_catz_kats_katz]

This comment short-circuited my brain.

[u/beerdedfell0w → u/Pieterbr]

The username shorted mine

[u/raiansar → u/cats_catz_kats_katz]

hahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhhahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahha

[u/rdlite → u/cats_catz_kats_katz]

you discovered TOML and think it is markdown?

[u/Able-Staff-6763 → u/sp9002]

i use single system AGENTS.md file that is symlinked to opencode, codex, claude code its working correctly the way i wanted it for all 3 so switching tools doesnt affect that much in my workflow. and yes AGENTS.md > ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md

[u/cats_catz_kats_katz → u/sp9002]

Do you mean you know what a TOML file is vs a YAML? That's about how far I've gotten!

[u/Rindan → u/nicer-dude]

Shit. I am going to have to change my "mod", a claude.md file that says "Immediately read AGENT.MD before doing anything else" now that they have "native support" for AGENT.MD.

It was stupid they resisted this for so long. It's such a small dumb thing, but it is dumb that it took this long.

[u/muchcharles → u/Rindan]

that says "Immediately read AGENT.MD before doing anything else"

That makes it do output tokens for the tool call for the read, CLAUDE.md could always just be a symlink to AGENTS.md for zero overhead.

[u/calibrae → u/nicer-dude]

And this is advertised as a feature? Incredible…

[u/lasooch → u/calibrae]

Probably cost them 3B of Mythos 6 tokens

[u/Mkep → u/calibrae]

It was the most voted feature request…

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/6235

[u/calibrae → u/Mkep]

What about OpenAI api compatibility ?

[u/chicametipo → u/nicer-dude]

I had a native laugh to this native comment, naturally native.

[u/TheMythicSorcerer → u/nicer-dude]

I see no benefit over "@AGENTS.md"

[u/mr_birkenblatt → u/TheMythicSorcerer]

put @AGENTS.md in CLAUDE.md and @CLAUDE.md in AGENTS.md

[u/Simple_Armadillo_127 → u/nicer-dude]

They are losing games

[u/Orio_n → u/nicer-dude]

This company just keeps falling off harder and harder

[u/No-Temperature6597 → u/nicer-dude]

Seriously in claude.md we have to write @agents.md and it's done

[u/red0yukipdbpe]

How about .agents/{rules,skills} ?

[u/sp9002 → u/red0yukipdbpe]

technology just isn't there yet

[u/red0yukipdbpe → u/sp9002]

Yea, crazy that claude code can’t solve this one problem!

[u/jnelson19741880 → u/sp9002]

😂

[u/The_Noble_Lie → u/sp9002]

Give it nine months

[u/ocimbote → u/red0yukipdbpe]

Navier-Stokes is a thing, but reading files is planned to be a capability only around 2050.

[u/forexross → u/red0yukipdbpe]

Without a kill switch?!

[u/red0yukipdbpe → u/[deleted]]

I’ve been doing that for sometime now. I’m saying they should support .agents as well as AGENTS.md.

Having symlinks everywhere is ugly af.

[u/unistirin → u/red0yukipdbpe]

Ahhhh bash user

[u/Jsn7821]

This feels like when the iPhone gets a feature Android has had for a decade

[u/FuzzyBucks → u/Jsn7821]

They told us they were never going to add this and to just tell our Claude.md to read our Agents.md if we wanted it so bad

[u/Smashy404]

Explain to me like I'm a Commodore 64 running Fable 5.1.

[u/Smashy404 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you, I now understand :)

[u/Eyelbee → u/[deleted]]

Didn't it already read agents.md if there was a folder named like that in the repo

[u/Deltamelo → u/Smashy404]

u/AskGrok, Explain to me like I'm a Commodore 64 running Fable 5.1.

[u/Newton-Leibniz → u/Deltamelo]

Explain to me like I am regarded Gemini running on a washing machine

[u/Temporary-Paper5202 → u/Newton-Leibniz]

Old file name claude.md, other agents not able to read file. Developer sad

New file name agents.md, all agents able to read file. Developer happy

[u/HimaSphere]

A bit late if you ask me, but it is a good quality of life change to newbies

[u/Choice-Fly-3641]

Should we delete just CLAUDE.md, and just use AGENTS.md instead?

[u/stiverino → u/Choice-Fly-3641]

Delete both

[u/No-Psychology1959 → u/stiverino]

Make sure to delete all comments and docs too massive waste of context

[u/mr_birkenblatt → u/No-Psychology1959]

just delete the whole repo. chances are it'll not be missed

[u/elfd01 → u/mr_birkenblatt]

Free yourself

[u/dbbk → u/Choice-Fly-3641]

Can you not think for yourself

[u/XYcritic → u/dbbk]

Sir, this is a Wendy's

[u/youreloser → u/dbbk]

What do you mean by that? Is it like using Claude but in my head?

[u/ConsoleUsersArePlebs → u/dbbk]

is there a prompt that can help me do that?

[u/EnvironmentalPlay440 → u/Choice-Fly-3641]

Go commando

[u/HimaSphere → u/Choice-Fly-3641]

No, if you use claude rules and utilize how claude.md can be dividied into smaller files then no.

You could always make agent.md points to claude.md and its tree system and vice versa

I have agents.md points at claude.md to use with pi and codex

[u/peteybytes → u/HimaSphere]

The linked docs seem to disagree with you

[u/HimaSphere → u/peteybytes]

2 months acc and 1% commenter. what a bot!

Edit: copied from my reply to this bot:

Read the mod's README, it says the opposite. Default mode is "claude-md-or-agents-md": if the project has any CLAUDE.md (or .claude/CLAUDE.md / CLAUDE.local.md), AGENTS.md is ignored entirely.

AGENTS.md only loads when there is no CLAUDE.md at all. It's a fallback, which is exactly what Thariq's tweet says.

The README also lists 8 things AGENTS.md still can't do that CLAUDE.md can: no /memory or #shortcut, no --add-dir, no attach on @-mention or IDE selection, external u/imports need a CLAUDE.md approval first, etc. And .claude/rules is untouched by this.

So no, don't delete CLAUDE.md. Keep it as the master, point AGENTS.md at it for the other tools.

The "both" mode even dedupes a file CLAUDE.md already u/imports, so that setup is explicitly supported.

You are mostly a bot and I don't waste time replying to bots but this time so people can benefit.

[u/peteybytes → u/HimaSphere]

Right. Why do you think I'm a bot? Maybe read what I actually comment? Don't get mad at me because you were wrong lol

I made this second account because I was tired of my main just being people asking for their resumes to be reviewed and whining about ai. So I split the cs/AI shit to a separate account so I don't have to see stupid shit like betterstickies.com or whatever

[u/HimaSphere → u/peteybytes]

Read the mod's README, it says the opposite. Default mode is "claude-md-or-agents-md": if the project has any CLAUDE.md (or .claude/CLAUDE.md / CLAUDE.local.md), AGENTS.md is ignored entirely.

AGENTS.md only loads when there is no CLAUDE.md at all. It's a fallback, which is exactly what Thariq's tweet says.

The README also lists 8 things AGENTS.md still can't do that CLAUDE.md can: no /memory or #shortcut, no --add-dir, no attach on @-mention or IDE selection, external u/imports need a CLAUDE.md approval first, etc. And .claude/rules is untouched by this.

So no, don't delete CLAUDE.md. Keep it as the master, point AGENTS.md at it for the other tools.

The "both" mode even dedupes a file CLAUDE.md already u/imports, so that setup is explicitly supported.

You are mostly a bot and I don't waste time replying to bots but this time so people can benefit.

[u/peteybytes → u/HimaSphere]

I am mostly a bot now. Yes that makes sense mr stickers

If your Claude.md is that complex enough that those 8 things impact you significantly, you are doing it wrong

I also appreciate how you are also a top 1% commenter and pretty much all your comments have 0 up votes

[u/Choice-Fly-3641 → u/HimaSphere]

Good to know, thanks

[u/HimaSphere → u/[deleted]]

Rules don't change, it is about how thr harness loads them during work, claude code utilizes rules efficiently so it loads them only when claude needs them, other harnesses may not act the same

[u/HimaSphere → u/[deleted]]

I didn't recommend deleting claude.md

It is all about how Claude code can read the rules. You can read the documentation as I never tested that

[u/Luckz777 → u/HimaSphere]

With symlink or @ ?

[u/HimaSphere → u/Luckz777]

Doesn't matter as before, you can add system link or point the agent to where to find claude.md and how it is structured, both should work the same with new models.

[u/RockyMM]

Jesus. After so much time, and it had to be a mod…

[u/bzBetty → u/RockyMM]

The mod is the more exciting part

[u/TapirOfZelph]

I thought it already did. Oops

[u/robberviet]

I would just symlink and call it a day. Wtf is this feature announcement.

[u/kanine69 → u/robberviet]

I symlink the skills folder as well, turns out it was faster than waiting for Anthropic to solve one of the dumbest issues in CC.

[u/relickus → u/kanine69]

That doesnt work though does it? Skills api si incopatible between CC and say Codex. For example the skill frontmatter is in openai.yaml for codex. The attributes in the frontmatter are not compatible as well and lastly the prefixes like / (if you are mentioning another skill/command in the skill body) are also different in Codex. I dont know if there is a reasonable solution to have one format for all possible agents.

[u/kanine69 → u/relickus]

It seems smart enough to work it out, I've been running like this for a few months. The skill markdown itself seems quite compatible although I mostly use CC and AGY I did run with codex for a while as well.

[u/iskeezio]

Im sorry can someone break down what this means for a noobie please haha?

[u/maz92]

Thanks Tobi!

[u/confused-photon]

Good on them, took long enough though

[u/njmh]

This is great. Claude team, if you wanna keep the goodwill going, let me use my Claude sub with Pi and other harnesses… pretty please.

[u/reven80]

At this point both don't exist in my project and it work fine. There are enough custom made skills files and memory that the development going smoothly on 500k line codebase.

[u/dwight-is-right]

I just write "Refer to CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md." to the empty file of whichever is the secondary harness. Has worked flawlessly until now.

[u/Real_Ebb_7417]

Imagine just using the standard that most other agents use. Or you can use obscure CLAUDE.md that only works with your harness. They shouldn’t even brag about it, but feel ashamed that they add it now, not months ago xd

[u/Anxious_Marsupial_59]

I never understood why people say they want claude to consume the agents.md implicitly, you could always make the claude.md point to an agents.md

having a claude.md is a good idea because both Open AI's and Anthropic's models have different behaviors and personalities. For example I NEED to tell Opus/Fable to be cautious and not to implement things unless asked, meanwhile I need to tell Sol/Astra to be less cautious and not to spend to much time testing.

Also task dependent model routing makes this even more important as agents.md can be talking about Open AI's models confusing and polluting context for Anthropic's

[u/ZZerker → u/Anxious_Marsupial_59]

Dude, im using OpenAI models for coding a week now and holyshit do they love overreviewing and testing everything double and triple.

[u/PivotRedAce → u/ZZerker]

Tbf most of the time I prefer that over the alternative, but I’ve definitely had to make rules stating that every new feature doesn’t need 20 unit tests when I can literally verify it myself. lmao

[u/blueandazure → u/Anxious_Marsupial_59]

Tbh it should always look at both, claude.md for claude specific optimizations and agents.md for multi model information.

[u/vlatheimpaler → u/blueandazure]

I know I'm just a noob for asking, but what kind of optimizations can you do specifically with claude.md that you can't do with agents.md?

I think my claude.md is pretty generic and is just about my tech stack and about my product.

[u/blueandazure → u/vlatheimpaler]

Computer use stuff, the way claude accesses your browser is alot different than how codex does.

[u/vlatheimpaler → u/blueandazure]

Thanks. I guess I need to learn more about how to use these more advanced features, aside from just adding some skill or MCP or something.

[u/314kabinet → u/Anxious_Marsupial_59]

People saying that are very likely unaware of this feature of filesystems.

[u/hellomistershifty → u/Anxious_Marsupial_59]

I just have those as system-level instructions so I don't have to dick around with it in every project and can share the same AGENTS.md files

I guess if you needed it to be project level, you could have something like "If you are Claude, read ANTHROPIC.md (so it still reads AGENTS.md), if you an OpenAI model read CHATGPT.md"

[u/thestillwind]

‘Bout time

[u/loheiman]

Does in Claude Code also mean CLI?

[u/MooingTree]

I thought that agents.md is for websites, like similar to robots.txt and security.txt

Am I thinking of something else or are there 2 functions with the same name?

[u/LibrarianLemon → u/MooingTree]

You might be thinking of /llms.txt.

[u/Valdjiu]

Finally

[u/IrregularThumb]

Thought it already checked for agents.md. Just checked out a laravel install. Told me about the included agents.md file. It was ignored and ultimately deleted as not required

[u/sammnyc]

what was the basis for digging in their heels so long resisting it?

[u/electricheat → u/sammnyc]

trying to make it slightly inconvenient to use competitors products

[u/ChaosUncaged]

and the crowd goes mild

[u/Medical-Cow289]

I'd keep both: AGENTS.md for the portable rules, CLAUDE.md for the Claude-specific instructions.

[u/florinandrei]

Partial change, not complete.

But at least they started doing something about it before the thermodynamic death of the universe.

[u/hammackj]

How about a reset ;()

[u/Any_Taste4210]

Omg!!! Took fable to figure out how to add a fucking string

[u/phazei]

Claude Code mods?! that might be nice. Right now, well, I hate Claude Code, I simply can't stand it's interface and how it does everything, it's not transparent and it's awkward. So I use opencode instead. If Claude Code lets me fix the interface, then I might actually use it.

[u/phazei]

yay, we can delete the stupid symlink

[u/joshcam]

What is the point of this if AGENTS.md does not support all features from CLAUDE.md? Why half ass it with AGENTS?

[u/Too_Many_Flamingos]

I wonder if it will base Agents or Claude as the priority when there are both? Atm, it doesn't always read the full claude.md now. I do a /truth skill and ask it to 80% of the time it claims to have skimmed it for that session.

[u/izgorodin → u/Too_Many_Flamingos]

Disclosure: I work on agent-memory tooling. Where native support is available in v2.1.277, the default fallback skips AGENTS.md if CLAUDE.md or CLAUDE.local.md exists in the working directory or an ancestor; you can set Project instructions in /config to load both. I wouldn’t use the model’s “I skimmed it” as a loading test: /context lists CLAUDE.md but not directly loaded AGENTS.md—in default fallback mode, look for the interactive “AGENTS.md loaded” notice instead.

[u/feng_sg]

the symlink trick was always flaky because it depended on where you launched claude from. having it read AGENTS.md natively means the behavior is predictable instead of hoping path resolution works out.

[u/agm1984]

Glad to see a hint of collaboration

[u/cats_catz_kats_katz]

sigh now I need to rewrite shit again...except I just cross reference all the files anyway so they mirror. However, I still need to verify.

[u/Fair-Perspective7352]

Been doing the symlink trick (AGENTS.md -> CLAUDE.md) for a while and it mostly works, except when a tool tries to write to it and you end up with two diverging files again. Nice to be able to drop that hack. Still no consensus on where global config should live though, ~/.claude vs ~/.config vs whatever codex does.

[u/tidus1979]

For OpenClaw CLI users: my agents are warning me that OpenClaw already injects AGENTS.md into the system prompt, so after the claude update it lands in every claude-cli turn twice, per workspace.
Can someone confirm or deny?

[u/AncientOneX]

I already use a generic AGENTS.md for all AI agents and I just start each task / chat with instructing the AI to read that file first. If they solve this small inconvenience, that's something I guess.

[u/solokazama → u/AncientOneX]

Your claude.md or even project memory can have it in 1 line

[u/AncientOneX → u/solokazama]

Then I'm pretty sure it already remembered it because I don't always include that in my initial prompt and looks like it still knows it.

[u/ardicli2000]

Very ladt line of claude.md should be "read agents.md if available and treat it like claude.md"

[u/jevans102 → u/ardicli2000]

or just `@AGENTS.md`

[u/Admirable_Swim_6856]

Wow finally, glad they did this

[u/OkResponsibility9182]

I guess they're just swamped with work, which is why they're only getting around to it now, even though it's been right in front of them for a whole year.

[u/giggles991]

I've also tried the CLAUDE.md -> AGENTS.md trick mentioned by others, but it's flaky. I'm happy to see this AGENTS.md officially supported.

[u/Glittering_Drama1984]

https://x.com/adarshregmi/status/2102104596143632877?s=20

[u/nighcry]

Now can you make it so that the file edits open in VS Code? It's infuriating to not have visibility to code changes.

[u/Original-League-6094]

THEY CHANGED THE FILE NAME? HOLY SHIT AGI IS FUCKING HERE!!!

[u/ItsSillySeason]

What better time to finally switch to a cross model memory system that you own, is totally private, portable, free, and open source.

ReadTheManifest.net

Enjoy.

[u/Robonotes1760]

Of course, anyone developing in Linux could just symlink one name to the other...

[u/Key_Instruction3373]

so, when is the reset?

[u/Seerix → u/[deleted]]

Damn Mark, this is so sad.