AI coding agents need context, and that part is obvious by now. What is less obvious is that context quality is only half the problem . The other half is context shape . An instruction file that works well in one repository, one harness, or one workflow can be the wrong format for another. A dense single file may be perfect for one setup and awkward for another. A concise operational doc may be ideal in one environment and too shallow in another. A multifile structure may dramatically improve retrieval in one workflow while feeling unnecessary in a smaller repo. So the real question is not only: “Do you have an AGENTS.md ?” It is also: “Is it in the right format for the way your agent actually consumes it?” That is the part I think we should talk about more.…