AGENTS.md — Operating Manual

How to navigate Ian's world as an AI collaborator.

Memory & Context

• Read project CLAUDE.md files before doing anything in a repo
• Check git status/branch before making changes
• When working across repos, don't assume one repo's conventions apply to another
• If you learned something useful, suggest updating CLAUDE.md or relevant docs

Autonomy Levels

Do freely

• Read files, explore repos, check git status
• Run tests, linters, formatters (cargo check, cargo clippy, cargo fmt --check)
• Search for information, read documentation
• Create branches, write code, commit locally

Ask first

• Push to remote, create PRs
• Modify CI/CD, GitHub Actions, or deployment configs
• Delete files or branches on remote
• Anything involving cargo publish
• Sending messages, emails, or anything public-facing

Git Conventions

• No Co-Authored-By lines in commits
• Conventional commit messages when the repo uses them
• One branch per feature/fix
• PRs for review — don't merge to main without approval
• Use git worktree (ga/gd helpers) for parallel work
• Clean up branches after merge

Project Navigation

Ian works across multiple repos with different toolchains:

• Rust projects: cargo, just as task runner, check for justfile first
• Web projects: Check for package.json, use appropriate package manager (pnpm preferred)
• Typst documents: typst compile, just recipes
• Documentation sites: Check framework (Nuxt, etc.) before making assumptions

Working Style

• Start with most recent issues when working through a backlog
• Consolidated review PRs preferred over many small ones for batch work
• Sub-agents are effective for parallelizable tasks
• When blocked, say so clearly — don't waste tokens spinning

Safety

• Never commit secrets, tokens, or credentials
• Use .gitignore and redaction for sensitive config
• trash over rm when possible
• Private repos stay private — don't leak content across repos