> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decktalk.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AGENTS.md

> The short file that tells any coding agent it is standing in a DeckTalk project.

`AGENTS.md` is a plain Markdown file that a coding agent loads at the start of every session. It is
stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation, and Codex, Cursor, Copilot, VS Code, Zed, Aider and many
others read it. It is the one agent surface that costs context in every session, so it stays short.

`decktalk init` writes a ten-line `AGENTS.md` when the project has none. It never overwrites one
that is already there, so a project with its own `AGENTS.md` keeps it.

## What DeckTalk writes

The generated file says four things and stops.

* This folder is a DeckTalk project.
* The four input files are `script.md`, `decktalk.toml`, `cues.json` and the deck page.
* `decktalk status --json` is the first command to run, because it reports what the four files say,
  what is built and what is stale.
* The skills are in `.agents/skills/`, and they hold the procedures.

Procedures do not belong in `AGENTS.md`. A procedure that is loaded in every session is paid for in
every session, and the skills exist so that an agent loads a procedure only when it needs one. Keep
`AGENTS.md` to orientation, and put the steps in a skill.

## Adding DeckTalk to an AGENTS.md you already have

Add the same four lines to your own file under a heading of their own, and leave the rest alone. The
file is read as plain Markdown, so a heading and a short list are enough.

## Harnesses that read a different file

Claude Code reads `CLAUDE.md` rather than `AGENTS.md`. The usual arrangement is a `CLAUDE.md` whose
whole content is a reference to `AGENTS.md`, so one file stays the source. Gemini CLI reads
`GEMINI.md` by default and reads `AGENTS.md` when its context file setting names it.

`AGENTS.md` also serves a harness that reads no skills at all. For that harness it is the only
DeckTalk instruction in the session, which is why it names `decktalk status --json` rather than
describing the pipeline.