Re: [PATCH] docs: add AGENTS.md as a symlink to README

[Bradley Morgan <brads@mainlining.org>]

On 24 September 2026 16:20:15 BST, Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org> wrote:
>On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 04:08:08PM +0100, Bradley Morgan wrote:
>> On 24 September 2026 14:49:45 BST, Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
>wrote:
>>> 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 <sashal@kernel.org>
>>> 
>>> 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 <sashal@kernel.org>
>> 
>> NAK, we could add to memories that to read soandso file before every
>> patch, and then it wouldn't increase tokens then?
>
>Could you help me understand what you meant here? I'm aware some agents
>use a
>notion of "memories", but I don't think they standardized on it in any
>way, nor
>how we could incorporate them here?
>

They use MEMORY.md sometimes.


>And as far as I'm aware, nothing is free here - those "memories" still use
>tokens.

Not as much.



>
>

--- Thanks!
"I'm not a very positive person" - Linus torvalds