Back to News

Anthropic adds AGENTS.md support to Claude Code, adopting OpenAI's cross-vendor spec

52 points · 10 comments#anthropic#claude-code#agents-md#openai

Anthropic announced that Claude Code version 2.1.277 now supports AGENTS.md files as a fallback to CLAUDE.md. The feature is built on Claude Code mods, with the agents-md mod provided as a built-in and its source code publicly available. This marks the first time the popular coding harness adopts the cross-vendor project instruction standard originally created by OpenAI's Codex, a move welcomed by developers and OpenAI's Codex lead.

Coverage timeline

  1. Hacker Newsdeaux
    Anthropic finally adds AGENTS.md support to Claude CodeHN
  2. Simon Willison
    Quoting Thariq Shihipar

    We're adding support for AGENTS.md to Claude Code. Starting today in version 2.1.277, if there is no CLAUDE.md in a folder, Claude will check for and use AGENTS.md. AGENTS.md support is built off of Claude Code mods, our upcoming way to customize the Claude Code harness. This is a built-in mod, but you’ll be able to build custom versions of project instructions yourself as you’d like too. You can see the source for the mod here ! — Thariq Shihipar , there are more mods here Tags: thariq-shihipar , coding-agents , anthropic , claude-code , generative-ai , ai , llms

  3. Techmeme
    Anthropic adds support for the AGENTS.md instructions spec to Claude Code; OpenAI contributed AGENTS.md to the Agentic AI Foundation last year (Thomas Claburn/The Register)

    Thomas Claburn / The Register : Anthropic adds support for the AGENTS.md instructions spec to Claude Code; OpenAI contributed AGENTS.md to the Agentic AI Foundation last year — Devs cheer relief from compatibility headache — Anthropic on Friday surprised the developer community by supporting rival OpenAI's mechanism for passing marching orders to AI agents.

  4. 机器之心机器之心
    Anthropic接受OpenAI标准，智能体从此共用一份AGENTS.md

    编辑｜泽南、杨文 Anthropic 要 Open 起来了？ 刚刚，Claude Code 成员 Thariq Shihipar（@trq212）发帖称，Claude Code 开始支持 AGENTS.md 文件了。 从 2.1.277 版本开始，如果项目目录中没有 CLAUDE.md，Claude Code 会检查并使用 AGENTS.md。用户可以通过 /config 切换这项行为。 这项能力建立在 Claude Code 的 mods 机制上。Anthropic 已将 agents-md 做成内置 mod，并公开了相关源码。 相关源码链接：https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/tree/main/mods/agents-md Thariq 表示，未来开发者也可以围绕项目指令构建自定义版本。 AGENTS.md 就像是项目写给 AI Agent 看的说明书，里面的内容旨在告诉 Agent 项目的结构、怎么安装依赖、运行哪些测试、代码规范是什么等等。官方 AGENTS.md 网站也明确把它称为「README for agents」。Claude Code 的这次改动第一次让这个热门的 harness 加入了跨厂商的项目指令标准之中。 消息一出，网友喜大普奔，评论区迅速被「终于统一了」、「Thanks」刷屏。 甚至连 OpenAI Codex 负责人 Tibo 也跑来祝贺：「太好了！这就对了。欢迎来到光明的一边。」 要知道，AGENTS.md 最初就是源自 OpenAI 的 Codex。表面上水火不容的 Anthropic 和 OpenAI，在竞争激烈的 Agent 赛道上现在倒是走到了一块。 Claude Code 开始兼容 AGENTS.md 在默认模式下，Claude Code 会沿项目目录树查找 AGENTS.md，只要项目路径上没有项目级 CLAUDE.md，找到的文件就会作为项目指令加载。 当 Agent 读取项目子目录中的文件时，mod 还会按目录层级补充对应的 AGENTS.md。如果同级目录存在 CLAUDE.md，则遵循原有的 CLAUDE.md 规则。 相关设置位于 /config 的 Project instructions 中。用户可以选择仅使用 CLAUDE.md，在没有 CLAUDE.md

Related stories

  • Anthropic updates usage policy to ban abusive behavior toward Claude

    Anthropic revised its usage policy for the first time in over a year, adding explicit bans on sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward Claude, alongside new rules on election interference, weapons development, surveillance, and deceptive campaigns. The update retains conversation termination as the primary enforcement mechanism for violations. Ordinary frustration and criticism remain permitted.

    3 reports · 3 sources91 points · 225 comments

  • Meta, Microsoft reportedly cut employee use of Anthropic's Claude

    According to The Information, Meta and Microsoft are working to reduce their employees' reliance on Anthropic's Claude, with Meta's Claude Code active users dropping to about 30,000 from 60,000 earlier this yearcars. Microsoft has cut internal Claude spending by over 33%, reducing per-employee monthly token budgets from $100,000 to $10,000 and routing requests to cheaper models via Copilot. Meta is shifting developers to its own tools like Muse Code and MetaCode.

    3 reports · 3 sources375 points · 383 comments

  • DOD stops using Anthropic tools; Claude used in Iran ops last week

    The US Department of Defence has stopped using Anthropic's AI tools, according to an official. Sources say Claude was in use as recently as last week, including in military operations against Iran.

    1 reports · 1 sources

  • Anthropic makes Claude for Government generally available to federal and state agencies

    Anthropic announced that Claude for Government is now generally available to federal and state agencies. Claude Code CLI and Claude for Microsoft 365 are also available in early access.

    1 reports · 1 sources

News updates every hour. Subscribe in your RSS reader to get new stories automatically.

Subscribe