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AGENTS.md · Rust

AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md examples for Rust

Of 176 actively developed open-source products built with Rust, 119 (68%) keep instruction files for coding agents: AGENTS.md in 99, CLAUDE.md in 77. The typical file is 1,190 words, and most cover pointers to other docs (74%) and commands to build, run and test (73%).

Real files to read

From the best-known open-source Rust products whose file is a real one (not a pointer to another), 200 to 4,000 words, covering at least three of the usual topics, written mainly in Rust. Each opens on GitHub.

ProjectFileStarsWordsCovers
vercel-labs/agent-browserAGENTS.md43,8291,398CommandsTestingDoc pointersStructureCode style
slint-ui/slintAGENTS.md24,150226CommandsTestingDoc pointers
screenpipe/screenpipeAGENTS.md21,909840CommandsTestingDoc pointersGit
gitbutlerapp/gitbutlerAGENTS.md21,800278TestingDoc pointersCode style
cube-js/cubeCLAUDE.md20,989976CommandsTestingDoc pointersStructureGit
cocoindex-io/cocoindexAGENTS.md11,6722,737CommandsTestingDoc pointersStructureCode style
rerun-io/rerunAGENTS.md11,5851,708CommandsTestingDoc pointersStructureCode style
PRQL/prqlAGENTS.md10,922687CommandsTestingDoc pointersCode style
fujiapple852/trippyAGENTS.md8,028243CommandsTestingGit
katanemo/planoCLAUDE.md7,085575CommandsTestingDoc pointersStructureCode style
metalbear-co/mirrordAGENTS.md5,363798CommandsTestingStructureCode style
fallow-rs/fallowAGENTS.md5,038657CommandsDoc pointersStructureGit

What Rust projects put in them

Share of the 109 files that cover each topic, against all 641 files we read.

Pointers to other docs74% vs 68%
Commands to build, run and test73% vs 78%
Testing65% vs 67%
Project structure50% vs 58%
Git, commits and pull requests50% vs 46%
Code style45% vs 51%

How they talk to the agent: 79% say “never” or “do not” somewhere (all files: 80%), 28% shout a rule in capitals like IMPORTANT or MUST (24%), and 20% tell it to ask before some changes (20%).

The tools they name

Package managerscargo (33 files), pnpm (29 files), npm (19 files)

Tests and lintersVitest (15), Playwright (13), pytest (13), ESLint (10), Prettier (8), Biome (7)

Named more than in files generallySQLite (23), Tauri (19)

Questions

What should an AGENTS.md for a Rust project include?

In 109 files from open-source Rust products: pointers to other docs (74%), commands to build, run and test (73%), testing (65%), project structure (50%), git, commits and pull requests (50%), code style (45%). The package manager they name most is cargo (33 files).

AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md?

Among these Rust products, 99 keep an AGENTS.md and 77 a CLAUDE.md. Across every product we checked, 320 keep both, and in 170 of those the CLAUDE.md only points to the AGENTS.md (a symlink or a line like @AGENTS.md), so there's one file to maintain. Codex, Cursor, Copilot and others read AGENTS.md; Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md.

How long is a typical Rust AGENTS.md?

The median is 1,190 words in these 109 files; across all 641 files we read, half are between 425 and 1,665 words.

How this is counted: the GitHub repos of open-source products built with Rust, pushed to in the 180 days before 2026-10-12. We read each repo's AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and other agent files; what's published here is counts and links, not their text. All files, by the numbers.