docs(agents): Remove duplicated agent rule files - #5930
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coding.mdc was almost entirely a subset of AGENTS.md: the contributing guidelines, coding rules, useful resources, and key commands sections were near-verbatim copies. overview_dev.mdc re-described every rule three times (once per rule bullet list, once in a keyword table) even though each rule file already carries the same information in its frontmatter description, and it pointed agents at fetch_rules, a Cursor-only tool. Reduce coding.mdc to a pointer, delete overview_dev.mdc, and move the rule index into AGENTS.md as a single table. Agents now read one file to get started instead of three.
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runningcode
commented
Aug 11, 2026
runningcode
marked this pull request as ready for review
August 11, 2026 10:02
runningcode
requested review from
0xadam-brown,
adinauer,
markushi and
romtsn
as code owners
August 11, 2026 10:02
The dedupe commit softened the "STOP — Required Reading" block into a plain descriptive sentence. In practice an agent then treats AGENTS.md as optional background and answers questions without ever loading it, which is exactly what the original wording was there to prevent. Restore the imperative framing for AGENTS.md only. The old block also listed coding.mdc and overview_dev.mdc as required reading; those are gone, and the per-area rule files stay opt-in via the index table in AGENTS.md. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
coding.mdc is alwaysApply: true, making it Cursor's auto-injected entry point — the same role CLAUDE.md plays for Claude Code. Leaving it descriptive while CLAUDE.md is imperative means only one of the two agents is actually told to load AGENTS.md before doing anything. Phrased tool-neutrally rather than naming the Read tool, since Cursor's equivalent is read_file. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
adinauer
reviewed
Aug 11, 2026
Cursor reads a root AGENTS.md automatically, so a .cursor/rules entry whose only content is 'go read AGENTS.md' instructs Cursor to load a file it has already merged into context. The domain-specific rules in .cursor/rules/ are unaffected — they are alwaysApply: false and are fetched on demand via the index table in AGENTS.md. CLAUDE.md stays: Claude Code does not read AGENTS.md natively. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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markushi
approved these changes
Aug 12, 2026
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📜 Description
Removes two redundant agent rule files and consolidates the rule index into
AGENTS.md..cursor/rules/coding.mdc— reduced to a pointer atAGENTS.md. Its "Contributing Guidelines", "Coding rules", "Useful Resources", and "Key Commands" sections were near-verbatim duplicates of sections already inAGENTS.md, including the Google Truth paragraph in full. The file stays (withalwaysApply: true) so Cursor still has an entry point..cursor/rules/overview_dev.mdc— deleted. It described each rule twice (a bullet list per rule, then a keyword→rule table), while every rule file already carries the same information in its own frontmatterdescription, which is what Cursor uses for auto-selection. It also instructed agents to usefetch_rules, a Cursor-only tool unavailable to other agents.AGENTS.md— the "STOP — Required Reading" block is replaced by a single table mapping each rule to when it applies.CLAUDE.md— updated to match, since it referenced the removed section.Agents now read one file to get oriented instead of three.
💡 Motivation and Context
The required-reading chain made every session load
AGENTS.md→coding.mdc→overview_dev.mdcbefore doing anything, and two of those three reads added no information. Duplicated guidance across files also drifts: the same rules were maintained in several places at once.💚 How did you test it?
I did what Alex suggested, asked claude code
which otel modes exist for java sdk?and thenwhich context files did you use so far?, it printed📝 Checklist
sendDefaultPIIis enabled.#skip-changelog