AGENTS.md: The One Config File Most AI Coding Tools Already Read (And the One That Doesn't)

1Key Takeaways

• TL;DR AGENTS.md is an open standard that lets you write your project's rules once and have most AI coding tools read them automatically — Copilot, Cursor, Kilo Code, Devin Desktop, Aider, and 30+ others.
• This article covers what goes in the file, what most guides skip, and the one popular tool that genuinely doesn't read it the way you'd expect.
• The problem: instruction drift If you use more than one AI coding tool, you've probably hit this.
• You write a copilot-instructions.md for GitHub….