{"id":"agents-md--agents-md","name":"AGENTS.md","url":"https://agents.md/","page":"https://mrpeppersdev.github.io/agent-infrastructure-landscape/systems/agents-md--agents-md","family":"memory","section":"File-backed / editor paradigms","sections":["File-backed / editor paradigms"],"tier":1,"last_verified_at":"2026-10-22","lifecycle":{"status":"active","severity":0,"note":null},"taxonomy":{"storage":[{"value":"file","primary":true,"reason":null}],"retrieval":[{"value":"injection","primary":true,"reason":null}],"persistence":[{"value":"cross-session","primary":true,"reason":null}],"update":[{"value":"overwrite","primary":true,"reason":null}],"unit":[{"value":"document","primary":true,"reason":null}],"governance":[{"value":"user-controllable","primary":true,"reason":null}],"conflict":[{"value":"manual","primary":true,"reason":"manual (git-versioned; human edits)"}]},"cells":{"type":{"value":"Cross-tool open standard","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"desc":{"value":"Open Markdown 'README for agents' at repo root; nested files in subprojects take precedence (closest wins). Holds build/test commands, conventions and PR rules. Stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation); supported by Codex, Jules, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Devin/Windsurf and others.","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"claims":{"value":"Donated to Linux Foundation's AAIF (Dec 2025). Adopted by 20,000+ repos. Read by Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Factory.ai.","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"modalities":{"value":"text","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"created":{"value":"2025-05 (introduced with OpenAI Codex CLI research preview May 16 2025; donated to Linux Foundation AAIF Dec 2025)","citation":"https://openai.com/index/introducing-codex/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-12","source_class":"third-party"},"latest-release":{"value":"not applicable — not OSS","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-12"},"license":{"value":"MIT","citation":"https://github.com/agentsmd/agents.md","status":"real-data","tier":"T1","source_class":"repo"},"gh":{"value":"agentsmd/agents.md — ~25k stars","citation":"https://github.com/agentsmd/agents.md","status":"real-data","tier":"T1","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22","source_class":"repo"},"mindshare":{"value":"searched not found","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"depth-floor-reached","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-12","source_class":"vendor"},"citations":{"value":"not applicable — not academic","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-12"},"funding":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-06"},"customers":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"pricing":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"compliance":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"data-handling":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"deployment":{"value":"not applicable — not a deployable product","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"hq":{"value":"not applicable — not a company","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"founders":{"value":"Open standard (community-driven); no single founding org","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"volume":{"value":"no scale claim — hierarchical markdown files","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"perf":{"value":"no public benchmark scores found","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"depth-floor-reached","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"repro":{"value":"not applicable — not a research paper","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"code-release":{"value":"not applicable — not a research paper","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"api-surface":{"value":"not applicable — file convention","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"latency":{"value":"not applicable — file convention","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"throughput":{"value":"not applicable — file convention","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"backend-storage":{"value":"file (AGENTS.md)","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"multi-tenancy":{"value":"not applicable — file","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"encryption":{"value":"not applicable — file","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"sso-rbac":{"value":"not applicable — file","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"embedding-model":{"value":"not applicable — file convention","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"consistency":{"value":"strong","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"versioning":{"value":"snapshots","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"tombstoning":{"value":"hard-delete supported","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"schema-evolution":{"value":"free-form / no schema","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"namespace":{"value":"hierarchical","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"contradiction":{"value":"always overwrite (last-write-wins)","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"forgetting":{"value":"user-controlled forget","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"mcp-support":{"value":"not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm (no API surface)","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"a2a-support":{"value":"not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"otel":{"value":"not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"webhooks":{"value":"not applicable — file-as-memory paradigm","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"import-export":{"value":"Markdown / plain text (the file itself is the export)","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"integration-count":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"orchestration":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"programmatic-control":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"vendor-benchmarks":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-06"},"pricing-specifics":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"agent-abstraction":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"memory-primitives":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"llm-lock":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"runtimes":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"session-handling":{"value":"not applicable — wrong section","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"validated-verticals":{"value":"coding agents only - software engineering teams","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"time-to-running":{"value":"<10min (drop a file in repo)","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"anti-fit":{"value":"not for non-coding / non-IDE use cases","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"optimised-for":{"value":"simplicity / git-versioned / human-readable","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"adjacent-infrastructure":{"value":"requires the corresponding IDE / editor","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"pros":{"value":"Cross-vendor convention — the closest thing to a universal agent memory file format; works across Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex CLI.","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"cons":{"value":"Adoption is informal (no spec authority); agent-by-agent interpretation differences mean behavior isn't fully portable.","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"links":{"value":"agents.md GitHub Blog","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-langsmith":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-opentelemetry":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-datadog":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-helicone":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-weave":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-langfuse":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-arize":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"obs-custom":{"value":"File-format specification — observability is a host-app concern","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-token-budget":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-prompt-caching":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-semantic-caching":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-batching":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-model-routing":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-streaming-only":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"cost-observability-cost-attribution":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-langsmith-evals":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-braintrust":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-weights-and-biases-agent":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-helicone-evals":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-custom-test-harness":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-human-loop":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"eval-production-traffic-replay":{"value":"no","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14","source_class":"vendor"},"commit-trajectory":{"value":"not applicable — no GitHub repo","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14"},"citation-trajectory":{"value":"not applicable — non-paper row","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14"},"download-trajectory":{"value":"not applicable — not published as a package","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3","last_verified_at":"2026-05-14"},"cost-input-usd-per-mtok":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"cost-output-usd-per-mtok":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"cost-tier":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"cost-pricing-model":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"cost-last-verified":{"value":"not applicable — not commercial","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"capability-composite-score":{"value":"not applicable — file convention / data standard, not a capable system","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"capability-band":{"value":"not applicable — file convention / data standard, not a capable system","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"capability-benchmark-sources":{"value":"not applicable — file convention / data standard, not a capable system","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"capability-last-verified":{"value":"not applicable — file convention / data standard, not a capable system","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"use-case-tags":{"value":"code-generation-focused, scoped-agentic","citation":null,"status":"estimate","tier":"T3"},"use-case-anti-tags":{"value":"latency-sensitive, multi-agent-coordination","citation":null,"status":"estimate","tier":"T3"},"adoption-accelerator":{"value":"","citation":null,"status":"no-data","tier":"T3"},"architecture-deployment-locus":{"value":"not applicable — open file-format convention (AGENTS.md), not deployable software","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"licensing-bucket":{"value":"open-source","citation":"https://github.com/agentsmd/agents.md","status":"real-data","tier":"T1","source_class":"repo"},"positioning-platform-vs-product":{"value":"not applicable — open file-format convention (AGENTS.md), not deployable software","citation":null,"status":"not-applicable","tier":"T3"},"taxonomy-three-layer-rollup":{"value":"agent-infra","citation":"https://github.com/MrPeppersDev/agent-infrastructure-landscape/blob/main/docs/schema/section-to-three-layer-rollup.json","status":"real-data","tier":"T1","source_class":"repo"},"developer-activity-opendigger":{"value":"{\"activity\":38.62,\"as_of\":\"2026-09\",\"openrank_12mo\":3.69,\"openrank_current\":2.42,\"participants\":28}","citation":"https://oss.open-digger.cn/github/agentsmd/agents.md/openrank.json","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","last_verified_at":"2026-10-28","source_class":"third-party"},"freshness-date":{"value":"2026-10-22","citation":"https://mrpeppersdev.github.io/agent-infrastructure-landscape/systems/agents-md--agents-md","status":"real-data","tier":"T2","source_class":"catalog"},"compliance-certifications":{"value":"not applicable — no hosted service","citation":"https://agents.md/","status":"not-applicable","tier":"T2","source_class":"vendor"},"sdk-languages":{"value":"","citation":null,"status":"no-data","tier":"T3"},"protocol-support":{"value":"","citation":null,"status":"no-data","tier":"T3"},"maturity":{"value":"","citation":null,"status":"no-data","tier":"T3"}},"corroboration":{"cited_cells":51,"third_party_cells":2},"edges":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[]},"history":[{"date":"2026-10-22","commit":"d1f77cf661","pr":219,"kind":"update","changes":[{"field":"license","label":"License","from":"not applicable — not OSS","to":"MIT","source":"https://github.com/agentsmd/agents.md"}]}],"license":"CC-BY-4.0","source":"https://github.com/MrPeppersDev/agent-infrastructure-landscape/blob/main/data/landscape.json"}