Where you put an instruction decides when the agent sees it and what it costs every turn. Here is a practical map for AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md, skills, Cursor rules, and MCP. Originally published on clog
When an agent seems to ignore your rules, the cause is often two rules that disagree rather than a file that's too long. This post shows why fixing one conflict usually helps more than cutting lines.
If Cursor keeps skipping your project rules, it's usually frontmatter, scoping or context pressure rather than the model. Here are the common causes and how to fix each one. Originally published on cl
Every always-on instruction file costs tokens on every turn, and past a point it starts costing adherence too. Here is what Claude Code, Cursor and Codex actually document about size, plus a checklist