STANDARDS AND CONVENTIONS

CHAPTER SUMMARY A standard is an agreed way of working together, and a convention is a community habit that is not formally enforced. An agent instructions file at a repository root tells agents how to build, test, and behave in a project, and is loaded automatically. Good files are short and concrete, contain commands, layout, conventions, and pitfalls, explain the reasons for rules, and never hold secrets. Several vendors have their own similar files, and keeping multiple copies risks drift, so keep one source of truth. Interoperability standards such as MCP and shared instruction conventions lower switching costs, but popularity does not guarantee safety. KEY TERMS REVIEW Standard: an agreed way of doing something so products can work together. Convention: a community habit that is not formally enforced. Repository: a project folder whose changes are tracked over time. Repository root: the top-level folder of a repository. Agent instructions file: a file at the root telling agents about the project. Pitfall: a known trap that has caused mistakes before. Drift: copies of the same information slowly ceasing to match. Interoperability: the ability of different products to work together. Protocol: a set of agreed rules for exchanging messages.