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meta: add a root-level AGENTS.md - #65493

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meta: add a root-level AGENTS.md#65493
jasnell wants to merge 2 commits into
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jasnell:jasnell/agents-md

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@jasnell

@jasnell jasnell commented Aug 22, 2026

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We're seeing a number of repeated mistakes in AI-generated contributions, including agents using Signed-off-by, creating what appear to be unsupervised PRs, appearing to respond to comments without human oversight, etc. Having an AGENTS.md file with specific instructions to the agent on what to avoid should help.

@jasnell
jasnell requested a review from a team August 22, 2026 23:03
@nodejs-github-bot nodejs-github-bot added doc Issues and PRs related to the documentations. meta Issues and PRs related to the general management of the project. labels Aug 22, 2026
We're seeing a number of repeated mistakes in AI-generated
contributions, including agents using `Signed-off-by`, creating
what appear to be unsupervised PRs, appearing to respond to
comments without human oversight, etc. Having an AGENTS.md
file with specific instructions to the agent on what to avoid
should help.

Signed-off-by: James M Snell <jasnell@gmail.com>
@jasnell
jasnell force-pushed the jasnell/agents-md branch from ed9ce39 to 37e80dd Compare August 22, 2026 23:07
Comment thread AGENTS.md Outdated
@jasnell jasnell added the commit-queue-squash Add this label to instruct the Commit Queue to squash all the PR commits into the first one. label Aug 22, 2026
@jasnell jasnell added the author ready PRs that have at least one approval, no outstanding review comments, and a CI started. label Aug 23, 2026
@cjihrig
cjihrig requested a review from BethGriggs August 23, 2026 00:35
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There is an ealier PR for AGENTS.md: #65463

Comment thread AGENTS.md

### Requirements

- All commits must be signed off by the human user using `Signed-off-by: <your name> (<your email>)` as an attestation to the [Developer Certificate of Origin](https://developercertificate.org/).

@avivkeller avivkeller Aug 23, 2026

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Suggested change
- All commits must be signed off by the human user using `Signed-off-by: <your name> (<your email>)` as an attestation to the [Developer Certificate of Origin](https://developercertificate.org/).
- All commits must be signed off by the human user using `Signed-off-by: <your name> (<your email>)` as an attestation to the [Developer Certificate of Origin](https://developercertificate.org/). As an AI agent, you are forbidden from leaving this trailer yourself.

I'm aware we say it later, but it never hurts to be explicit

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As the comment says, it already says this later on:

AI agents must not:

  • Sign off commits using Signed-off-by: <agent name> or Co-authored-by: <agent name>

Given that this file is intended to be read by a machine, repeating the instruction is probably unnecessary.

@MikeMcC399 MikeMcC399 left a comment

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Good to see the experience of receiving and responding to AI-assisted / -generated PRs has resulted in a proposal for explicit coverage in an AGENTS.md directive!

#62612 disabled linting for AGENTS.md. Consider re-enabling, then re-formatting and responding to linting findings. I noticed because #65463 from @BethGriggs had done this.

Comment thread AGENTS.md
Automated interactions that violate these rules may result in:
- Immediate closure of pull requests without review
- Blocking of the automation tool from further interaction with the project
- Blocking of the tool's owner or organization from contributing

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With my moderation hat on, I'm not sure this is enforceable. We can block accounts only AFAIK.

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