OpenAI Codex Team Advocates for AGENTS.md as Standard for AI Agent Instructions

San Francisco – The OpenAI Codex team has officially endorsed AGENTS.md as a standardized filename for providing context and instructions to AI coding agents. This move aims to foster consistency within the nascent ecosystem of AI-driven software development, as announced by Romain Huet, Head of Developer Experience at OpenAI. The selection of a "neutral name" is a strategic decision to encourage widespread adoption across various platforms and tools.

The AGENTS.md file functions similarly to a README.md file, serving as a central document within a code repository. It allows developers to explicitly guide AI agents like Codex on how to navigate a codebase, specify commands for testing, and ensure adherence to project-specific practices and standards. This structured approach helps in streamlining the interaction between human developers and AI collaborators.

According to Huet, the rapidly evolving field of AI coding agents has seen a proliferation of different file naming conventions for instructions. Standardizing on AGENTS.md addresses this fragmentation, providing a common ground that simplifies development workflows and enhances interoperability. The neutrality of the name is crucial for its acceptance beyond OpenAI's immediate ecosystem, promoting a universal method for agent guidance.

OpenAI Codex, powered by advanced models like codex-1, is designed to perform a variety of coding tasks, including writing features, debugging, and proposing pull requests. The integration of AGENTS.md files is central to enabling these agents to understand and execute complex tasks efficiently and accurately within diverse development environments. This standardization is expected to accelerate the development and deployment of more sophisticated AI-powered tools in software engineering.