From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from smtp.kernel.org (aws-us-west-2-korg-mail-alma10-1.taild15c8.ts.net [100.103.45.18]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B172849CF4A; Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:20:17 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=100.103.45.18 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1790263218; cv=none; b=c9YECACiwEQm5u/jcZWtqAmdt4fsU0zjzxrw1UaTPhQ2cn/fl0ii/Ag+vN3svN9M96VklNBA/0V2RifUr1QzgDFPC5VuJGXsl1dWezhx+jDsUOVGMGXHpMMNCab41oX3bQLxpxh2KNx2HeCBIUvTgcWKV0bjfXPyYprSqNv6vXI= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1790263218; c=relaxed/simple; bh=wxEuJMVBoZbga0STtRr92plLtm8vInH3FruD1jhYEKc=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:Message-ID:References:MIME-Version: Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To; b=D1gaKHNt8ZDabBpJ95NYPyzOfuLWa+IJkijOwSLo9nM258MH4B4Y5jbu5DiB5lQek3c+YOg3mP+l1KiqC8Fbi4t052aeRuMi/AIWGPq9DsE+/fqYtVnvXTPEXLrgwPM58iiwoVvuBlGGuhc67l9xho36jqTfAil4R4lVckfhqhE= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b=ZYKsiDRj; arc=none smtp.client-ip=100.103.45.18 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b="ZYKsiDRj" Received: by smtp.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 3A09A1F00893; Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:20:17 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=kernel.org; s=k20260515; t=1790263217; bh=1TonUH49EnMB6u8c5h2Nyyz7RxZIjpN24Wb4b73V2aA=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:References:In-Reply-To; b=ZYKsiDRjSINDvO2HkBvOdZh3eV1kfCLgy1Yf3Tmsf2ocaM3IyMleG1PCydVJD2+Gm ZR4pq7/p86HNVIuvjU+qpH98naiOfC0zJQ+yNZ7Xf3vMrL6Zt2kypbV9JyfYY9W/5i EsnuJfH8XbG0dyKriiAgOsCf+mt6EQve6eIeKG56vpCe/LlNmroA5yAlEiGgGxzIy7 xYZ3lWpm6ff6+xq3ER8P06CgLRluEYnHIX1ylQq0Nn7dqplnLgXn5kzv3nVphn+H0o 7ZFSX628FOmj1DEM6fwNqXYCX6vaEq3DLc5FEw0OKc3JvgibnHsIoe3vpYIr3NInaA QyPjRZaKTZPYg== Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:20:15 -0400 From: Sasha Levin To: Bradley Morgan Cc: corbet@lwn.net, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, rdunlap@infradead.org, skhan@linuxfoundation.org, workflows@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] docs: add AGENTS.md as a symlink to README Message-ID: References: <20260924134945.3095661-1-sashal@kernel.org> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 04:08:08PM +0100, Bradley Morgan wrote: >On 24 September 2026 14:49:45 BST, Sasha Levin 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: >>> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin >> >>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 > >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? And as far as I'm aware, nothing is free here - those "memories" still use tokens. -- Thanks, Sasha