II.
Topic overview
Reference · livetopic:instruction-file-standard
Instruction File Standard overview
Instruction File Standard as a cross-cutting topic — the convergence and divergence of agent instruction file formats across coding agents. Covers CLAUDE.md (Claude Code, Pi), AGENTS.md (Codex, Amp, OpenCode), .cursorrules and .cursor/rules/*.mdc (Cursor), .clinerules (Cline), .windsurfrules (Windsurf), .roorules (Roo Code), and .continuerules (Continue). The proliferation of agent-specific instruction files creates a maintenance burden for projects that support multiple agents. Cross-agent compatibility is emerging: Cursor added AGENTS.md support, Pi adopted CLAUDE.md. The open question is whether the ecosystem will converge on a single standard or maintain per-agent formats with translation layers.
Attributes
displayName
Instruction File Standard
description
Instruction File Standard as a cross-cutting topic — the convergence
and divergence of agent instruction file formats across coding agents.
Covers CLAUDE.md (Claude Code, Pi), AGENTS.md (Codex, Amp, OpenCode),
.cursorrules and .cursor/rules/*.mdc (Cursor), .clinerules (Cline),
.windsurfrules (Windsurf), .roorules (Roo Code), and .continuerules
(Continue). The proliferation of agent-specific instruction files
creates a maintenance burden for projects that support multiple agents.
Cross-agent compatibility is emerging: Cursor added AGENTS.md support,
Pi adopted CLAUDE.md. The open question is whether the ecosystem will
converge on a single standard or maintain per-agent formats with
translation layers.
Outgoing edges
applies_to2
- domain:software-engineering·DomainSoftware Engineering
- specialization:ai-agents-conversational·Specialization
related_topics2
- topic:auto-memory·TopicAuto-Memory
- topic:memory-scoping·TopicMemory Scoping
Incoming edges
contains1
- domain:knowledge-management·DomainKnowledge Management
related_topics1
- topic:unified-agent-memory·TopicUnified Agent Memory