More recent models are better at reading and obeying constraints in AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md.

GPT-5.2-Codex did a bad job of obeying my more detailed AGENTS.md files but GPT-5.3-Codex very evidently follows it well.

Perhaps I’m not using the latest and greatest in terms of models. I tend to avoid using tools that require excessive customization like this.

I find it infinitely frustrating to attempt to make these piece of shit “agents” do basic things like running the unit/integrations tests after making changes.

Opus 4.5 successfully ignored the first line of my CLAUDE.md file last week

Thank god it’s not just me. It really makes me feel insane reading some of the commentary online.

Each agent uses a different file, like claude.md etc (maybe you already knew that).

And it requires a bit of prompt engineering like using caps for some stuff (ALWAYS), etc.

You’re not stupid. But the agents.md file is just an md file at the end of the day.

We’ve been acting as if it’s assembly code that the agents execute without question or confusion, but it’s just some more text.