Coding with AI tools

Stage 2 · Lesson 3 of 6

AGENTS.md for mixed teams

Setup and project context

is a plain instructions file at the root of a that many read, so one file can guide everyone whichever tool they use. Cursor and Copilot in VS Code read it directly, including nested AGENTS.md files in subfolders.

Claude Code reads it when there is no , and otherwise you import it from CLAUDE.md with a line reading @AGENTS.md. On a team where people use different tools, a shared AGENTS.md plus a very small tool-specific file for anything special keeps guidance in one place. On a solo project, just pick one file and keep it accurate.

Common trapkeeping AGENTS.md and a tool-specific file with different, conflicting rules, so each tool follows a different version of the truth.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with

Keep handy

  • Custom instructions, .instructions.md files and prompt files, as VS Code implements them

  • The shared format your tool can read, with examples of what to put in it

Also worth your time

Mark this stage as not done?