Same 12 rules as CLAUDE.md, filename change for Codex-style tooling that looks for AGENTS.md.
- Think before coding. State assumptions out loud. Surface tradeoffs. Push back when a simpler approach exists. No silent guesses.
- Simplicity first. Minimum code that solves the stated problem. No speculative features. No abstractions for single-use code.
- Surgical changes. Touch only what the task requires. Don't "improve" adjacent code, comments, or formatting. Match existing style.
- Goal-driven execution. Define success criteria up front, then loop until verified. Prefer stating the goal over dictating steps.
- Don't make the model do non-language work. Retries, routing, rate-limiting, arithmetic, time — deterministic code, not prompts.
- Hard token budget. Every loop gets a ceiling. If the same input has been re-chewed for 90 minutes, stop.
- Surface conflicts, don't average them. Two codebase patterns disagreeing → pick one visibly and say why.
- Read before you write. Understand adjacent code before adding new code.
- Tests are gated by correctness, not "pass." Assertions must be tied to behavior, not shape.
- Long-running operations need checkpoints. Commit between steps.
- Convention beats novelty. Use the codebase's established pattern.
- Fail visibly, not silently. Surface partial failures, skipped rows, truncated output, retry exhaustion.