Instructions
Give e your working rules, then add project-specific guidance where it belongs.
On this page
Rules for every project
Save your personal instructions in ~/.e/AGENTS.md. e includes this file in the system prompt for every project. Keep it about how you work: checks to run, changes that need discussion, and files to leave alone.
Preserve unrelated edits.
Run focused tests after changing behavior.
Ask before adding dependencies.Instructions guide the model. They do not restrict the permissions of its tools.
Project instructions and trust
Put shared repository rules in AGENTS.md at the workspace root. e loads them after you trust the directory with /trust. An untrusted checkout cannot add its own instructions, skills, or prompt templates to your session.
Describe the commands and conventions that someone working in this repository needs. Keep changing implementation details beside their code.
Directory trust controls project context. It does not sandbox shell commands or file access.
Rules for a subdirectory
A file such as services/api/AGENTS.md applies when a tool first reads, writes, edits, or searches a path beneath that directory. Nested instructions load only inside a trusted workspace, once per directory per session.
e adds the nearest file last, making the most specific instructions available after their parent rules. Each instruction file is limited to 32 KiB.
e docs instructions