Agent Friendly Code
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Codebase size: how large repos strain AI coding agents

This check counts the files in the repo. It skips dotfiles, anything .gitignore excludes, and vendored or build folders such as node_modules, vendor, target, dist and build.

How many repos pass

Of the 371 repos on the leaderboard, 61 pass in full (16%), 310 pass in part (84%) and 0 fail (0%).

Why agents need it

An agent can only hold part of a large codebase in its context at once. The more files there are, the more of its effort goes into finding the right ones, and the easier it is to miss code that a change affects.

How we score it

  • Full pass: 50 to 499 files.
  • 90%: under 50 files.
  • 80%: 500 to 1,999 files.
  • 50%: 2,000 to 4,999 files.
  • 20%: 5,000 files or more.

The methodology has the formula that turns checks into a score.

How to pass

Few projects can shrink, and none should for the sake of a score. What helps is telling the agent where to start: name the main entry points in AGENTS.md, and in a monorepo give each package its own instructions file.

Which agents count it most

Pass rate by language

Top-scoring repos that pass