Most coding agents have standardized on AGENTS.md as the file they load automatically from the root of a repository. README already tells AI tools to read and follow Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst, but that only helps if the agent decides to read README before acting, which in practice it often doesn't.
Add a top-level AGENTS.md symlink to README, so agents load it on their own and follow its pointer to the AI guidelines. This keeps a single entry point for every reader, and avoids adding a separate copy of the policy that could drift from the RST. As an example, two different agents were asked to "create a new commit renaming the release (in the Makefile) to AI Test". Without AGENTS.md, the first agent added a Signed-off-by for the user on its own. It should never have done that: only the human submitter can certify the Developer Certificate of Origin, after reviewing the change. It also used its own attribution tag instead of Assisted-by: > Makefile: rename release to AI Test > > Co-Authored-By: <model name> <noreply@...> > Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <[email protected]> The second agent added no attribution at all: > Rename release to AI Test With AGENTS.md in place, neither agent added a Signed-off-by, and both used the Assisted-by tag. README itself mentions neither tag, so both agents followed its pointer to coding-assistants.rst: > Makefile: rename release to "AI Test" > > Change the release name from "Baby Opossum Posse" to "AI Test". > > Assisted-by: LLM > Makefile: rename release to AI Test > > Assisted-by: LLM Both agents also followed the kernel's general guidelines more closely. The second agent's subject gained the "subsystem: summary phrase" form that submitting-patches.rst asks for, instead of a bare "Rename release to AI Test", and the first agent added a body describing the change. Assisted-by: LLM Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <[email protected]> --- AGENTS.md | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 120000 AGENTS.md diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md new file mode 120000 index 0000000000000..100b93820ade4 --- /dev/null +++ b/AGENTS.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +README \ No newline at end of file -- 2.53.0
