AGENTS.md on StackOnward

How to Write Claude Code Prompts: Current Task Only

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 04:10:00 +0800

How to write Claude Code prompts depends on what this task still lacks after project configuration. Project rules already hold the repo map, commands, and long-lived boundaries. Skills already hold repeatable workflows. Hooks and CI run deterministic actions. Permission policy limits tools. The current prompt only needs the state to change, the evidence you already have, the affected range, the authorization boundary, and the result that must appear when the work is done.

The prompt does not need YAML, XML, or a fixed form. A local defect can be short. Context that crosses several owners is added only when that context changes the result. The test is not word count or field count. It is whether the agent can start from the current project, make the change inside authorization, and confirm the software reached the target state.

How to Write AGENTS.md: Root vs Directory Rules

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 03:20:00 +0800

How to write AGENTS.md starts with who a fact stays true for, and whether it should change a coding agent’s next file or command. Repo-wide maps, canonical commands, and cross-module boundaries belong at the repository root. Rules that only bind backend, frontend, or a worker sit in that directory. Habits that hold across repositories stay in the user-global file. What this task must change stays in the current prompt. CLAUDE.md uses the same content boundary; Claude Code just finds it through its own files.

If the root file also stores frontend commands, backend migrations, a release workflow, and “do not touch deploy this time,” four different lifetimes enter unrelated sessions. Confirm the fact in code or build config first, then keep the long-lived rule in the smallest scope that still needs it. Workflows, task variables, and hard stops belong to other mechanisms. The same scope-and-mechanism split is already mapped in Claude Code configuration.

Claude Code Configuration: Global vs Project

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 02:00:00 +0800

Claude Code configuration has to answer two questions: who should see this fact, and how it should take effect. Habits that hold across repositories belong at the user layer. Facts the team shares belong in the repo. Rules that only bind frontend or backend sit next to that directory. This change stays in the prompt. A repeatable judgment workflow becomes a skill. A mechanical action that must run is a hook, a permission, or existing CI.

The split does not require a separate config repository or a new directory template. It starts from the repo already in use and moves facts out of chat logs, global files, and duplicated project rules until each fact has one source of truth. Claude Code and Codex can share that source. Each client still owns its file format, discovery order, and events.