Basic

keeping “Style/Behavior” in one and “Permissions/Capabilities” in the other is a very clean way to organize your AI’s brain.

CLAUDE.md: The “Personal Assistant” Guide#

This file became a “thing” largely because of Cursor (the AI-native IDE). It acts as a persistent memory bank for the AI. Instead of reminding Claude every five minutes to “use functional components” or “don’t use semicolons,” you put it here.

Common contents include:

• Coding Standards: “Use TypeScript, strict mode, and Tailwind CSS.”
• Architecture Patterns: “We use the Feature-Sliced Design (FSD) pattern.”
• Testing Rules: “Always write a Vitest spec before submitting a PR.”

Tone: “Be concise; don’t explain things I already know.”

AGENTS.md: The “Operational Manual”#

AGENTS.md is more agnostic and often more functional. It’s designed for autonomous agents that might be performing tasks like running tests, fixing bugs, or managing documentation without a human constantly over their shoulder.

Common contents include:

• Tool Access: “You have permission to run npm test but NOT npm publish.”
• Environment Context: Information about the CI/CD pipeline or Docker containers.
• Inter-Agent Communication: Rules for how “Agent A” (the Coder) should talk to “Agent B” (the Reviewer).
• Security Boundaries: “Do not read files inside the .env directory.”