Agent Master Handbook
AI Native Handbook for Agent Practitioners
Quick Start
Copy this prompt into any AI coding agent to set up an agent-ready harness environment.
Set up an agent-ready harness environment for this project following AI Native best practices.
## What to do
1. Create AGENTS.md as the canonical agent entry point at the project root. Include:
- Project purpose (one paragraph)
- Directory structure with what each folder contains
- Build, test, and run commands
- Commit conventions (atomic commits with prefixes like feat:, fix:, build:, etc.)
- Pointers to specs, rules, skills, and other context files
2. Create symlinks so all major agent tools find the same file:
- ln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md
- ln -s AGENTS.md .cursorrules
- ln -s AGENTS.md .windsurfrules
3. Create .claude/settings.json with permission allowlists for common operations (build, test, git read commands).
4. Create a journal/ directory with a README explaining it captures agent failure records for self-evolution.
5. Create a specs/ directory for SPEC-driven decision records.
6. Create a skills/ directory with a README defining the quality gate for adding skills.
## Principles
- AGENTS.md should be under 200 lines — every line competes for context window space
- Use AGENTS.md (not CLAUDE.md) as the canonical file name — it is agent-tool-neutral
- Empty structure is better than low-quality placeholder content
- Check if community skills already exist before writing custom ones (skills.sh, cursor.directory)
- Reference https://agent-master-handbook.vercel.app for detailed guides on each practice
Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, and other agents. Run before or after your framework scaffold.
Evolution of Agent Practices
2023.01
Prompt Engineering
OpenAIiEveryone learned to talk to AI. Crafting effective prompts became the defining skill of the ChatGPT era.2024.03
Agentic Coding
Cognition (Devin) · CursoriAI coding agents shipped real code. Devin, Cursor, and Claude Code turned autonomous programming into a product.2024.11
MCP
AnthropiciModel Context Protocol gave AI a universal connector to tools and data — the "USB-C of AI."2025.02
Vibe Coding
Andrej Karpathyi"Fully give in to the vibes, forget that the code even exists." A cultural shift in how developers relate to code.2025.06
Context Engineering
Tobi Lütke · Andrej KarpathyiFrom writing prompts to designing information architecture. The art of filling the context window with just the right information.2026.03
Harness Engineering
Viv Trivedy · Martin FowleriAgent = Model + Harness. Building the systems around models that make AI agents reliable in production.concepts
curated
evangelism
guides
- Making a Repository Agent-Ready
- AGENTS.md as Single Source of Truth
- Making Your Site Legible to AI Answer Engines
- Preventing Git Conflicts in Agent Workflows
- CSS Variables as Consistency Constraints
- New-Project Repository Setup Checklist
- Making Agents Proactively Review Their Own Code
- Navigating the Agent Skills Ecosystem