File-backed / editor paradigms
13 systems in the file-backed / editor paradigms category of the AI Agent Infrastructure Landscape, grouped by maturity tier.
Tier 1 — battle-tested (5)
- AGENTS.md Cross-tool open standard
AGENTS.md at repo root (and ~/.codex/AGENTS.md for global); hierarchical concatenation from root to cwd. Persists build/test commands, conventions, architecture overview, security constraints, git workflow.
- CLAUDE.md Git-backed persistent instructions
Markdown file injected at session start; reloaded post-compaction. Document-as-memory: human-readable, version-controlled, no extraction or vector store. Anthropic-canonical pattern; equivalent emerges in Cursor / Windsurf.
- Cursor Rules IDE-embedded code memory
.cursorrules + project rules. Semantic chunking + Merkle-tree incremental re-indexing over the codebase. Turbopuffer-backed retrieval at IDE scale.
- GitHub Copilot custom instructions .github/copilot-instructions.md + path-scoped
.github/copilot-instructions.md repo-wide; .github/instructions/<name>.instructions.md for path-scoped rules with YAML frontmatter ( applyTo glob). Persists style, test conventions, language preferences.
- Windsurf Rules & Memories Codebase semantic + auto-memory
Rules files plus Cascade auto-generated memories. "Fast Context" RAG using SWE-grep models; ~100K-token effective context.
Tier 2 — production-ready (8)
- Aider CONVENTIONS.md / .aider.conf.yml Multi-file convention pattern
CONVENTIONS.md (any name, loaded via --read or read: in config); .aider.conf.yml (home / git-root / cwd, last wins); .aiderignore (gitignore-syntax).
- Cline .clinerules Version-controlled, AI-editable rules
.clinerules single file or .clinerules/ directory of numbered .md files (e.g. 01-style.md ). Global at ~/.cline/rules/ . Files version-controlled and AI-editable — Cline can write back. Toggleable per-session via UI.
- Cline Memory Bank Session-spanning state pattern
memory-bank/ directory of Markdown: projectBrief.md , productContext.md , activeContext.md , systemPatterns.md , techContext.md , progress.md . Loaded in full at start of every task. Compensates for context-window reset between sessions.
- Continue.dev .continue/rules Path-glob-scoped rules
.continue/rules/*.md at workspace root. YAML frontmatter: name , globs (file-pattern trigger), alwaysApply , description . Loaded lexicographically.
- Replit replit.md Project-level Replit Agent context
replit.md at project root. Persists project overview, tech stack, architectural decisions, deployment process, external resources. Scoped to Agent conversations only.
- Roo Code .roorules Per-mode rules + workspace overrides
.roo/rules/ (recursive .md / .txt alphabetic load); .roorules single-file fallback. Mode-specific via .roo/rules-{modeSlug}/ . Global at ~/.roo/rules/ . Multi-tenant mode customisation.
- Sourcegraph Cody — cody.json Custom command templates
.vscode/cody.json (workspace-scoped). JSON defining slash-commands with prompt text, context options ( currentFile , openTabs , terminal ), and mode ( ask / edit / insert ). Reusable prompt templates for project-specific workflows; check…
- Zed .rules Reads competitors as fallback
.rules at project root. Falls back to reading .cursorrules , CLAUDE.md , AGENTS.md (first match wins). Plain Markdown, no frontmatter schema. Injected as system prompt for all Agent Panel interactions.