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docs: restructure agent instruction files#2453

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kevinmessiaen merged 3 commits into
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doc/improve-agent-instructions
May 15, 2026
Merged

docs: restructure agent instruction files#2453
kevinmessiaen merged 3 commits into
mainfrom
doc/improve-agent-instructions

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@kevinmessiaen kevinmessiaen commented May 15, 2026

Summary

  • Rewrites CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md to follow Boris Cherny's recommended CLAUDE.md structure (Workflow Orchestration → Task Management → Core Principles)
  • CLAUDE.md targets Claude Code (interactive, human in the loop) with plan mode, subagent strategy, elegance, and verification rules
  • AGENTS.md targets autonomous agents (no human in the loop) — lean, self-contained, setup+commands inside Workflow Orchestration
  • Adds lessons.md for capturing corrected mistakes session by session
  • Extends .cursor/rules/guidelines.mdc with two new rules: Root Causes No Temporary Fixes, Minimal Scope
  • Adds Verification Gate section to the giskard-oss-pr-ready skill
  • Replaces "Autonomous Execution" with Clarify Before Acting: agents must comment on the issue (not open a PR) when scope is unclear, propose alternatives before implementing them, and push back on PR comments they disagree with rather than applying changes blindly

Test plan

  • Read CLAUDE.md — confirm 3 sections, ~50 lines, no operational content
  • Read AGENTS.md — confirm 3 sections, ~60 lines, setup+commands inside Workflow Orchestration
  • Read lessons.md — confirm terse format
  • Read .cursor/rules/guidelines.mdc — confirm 5 rules total
  • Read section 6 of AGENTS.md — confirm clarify-before-acting policy covers ambiguous issues, better suggestions, and PR comment disagreements

@kevinmessiaen kevinmessiaen changed the title docs: restructure agent instruction files following Boris's workflow docs: restructure agent instruction files May 15, 2026
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Code Review

This pull request updates the repository's AI agent guidelines and documentation. It introduces new rules for root cause analysis and minimal scope in the Cursor rules, adds a verification gate requiring test evidence in the skill documentation, and completely restructures AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md to provide clearer workflow orchestration for autonomous and interactive agents. A new lessons.md file is also created to track process improvements. The review feedback correctly identifies inconsistent file paths for the task management documentation and suggests including critical operational warnings about using uv run in the Claude-specific guide to ensure consistency and prevent execution failures.

Comment thread AGENTS.md

## Task Management
1. Plan First — write plan to tasks/todo.md
2. Verify Plan — review before starting; proceed if unambiguous
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medium

The path to the todo file is inconsistent with other references in this file (lines 12 and 33). It should be updated to tasks/todo.md to ensure clarity for automated agents.

Suggested change
2. Verify Plan — review before starting; proceed if unambiguous
5. Document Resultsadd review section to tasks/todo.md

Comment thread CLAUDE.md
**Find the root cause.** No band-aids. If a symptom has an underlying cause, address that — not the symptom.

**Only touch what's necessary.** No side effects. Leave every file you didn't need to change exactly as you found it.
giskard-oss — behavioral config for Claude Code (interactive assistant with a human in the loop).
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medium

The header is missing the link to README.md and the critical warning about using uv run, which are present in AGENTS.md. Including these ensures consistency across agent documentation and prevents operational failures when the assistant attempts to run commands directly.

Suggested change
giskard-oss — behavioral config for Claude Code (interactive assistant with a human in the loop).
giskard-oss — behavioral config for Claude Code (interactive assistant with a human in the loop). Human-oriented docs: [README.md](README.md). Always invoke Python via uv run — bare python or pytest will fail.

Comment thread CLAUDE.md Outdated
2. Verify Plan — check in before starting
3. Track Progress — mark items complete as you go
4. Explain Changes — high-level summary at each step
5. Document Results — add review section to todo.md
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medium

The path to the todo file is inconsistent with other references in this file (lines 9 and 37). It should be updated to tasks/todo.md for consistency.

Suggested change
5. Document Results — add review section to todo.md
5. Document Results — add review section to tasks/todo.md

@kevinmessiaen kevinmessiaen merged commit 050fd77 into main May 15, 2026
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@kevinmessiaen kevinmessiaen deleted the doc/improve-agent-instructions branch May 15, 2026 09:25
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