State of AGENTS.md adoption in open source
51% of the 401 popular open source repos we track have an AGENTS.md (203 repos, empty files not counted), as of 3 Nov 2026.
AGENTS.md since 24 Apr 2026
+12 pts
The same 148 repos: 40% had one then, 52% now
CLAUDE.md, no AGENTS.md
4%
17 of 401 repos
Any instructions file
55%
221 repos with AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md or another name agents read
Median length
6,904
characters, across those 221 files
Share of repos with each file over time
- AGENTS.md
- CLAUDE.md, no AGENTS.md
The list grew from 155 repos on 24 Apr 2026 to 401, so a step can be new repos rather than new files; the same-repos figure above leaves those out.
Numbers by month
| Date | Repos | AGENTS.md | CLAUDE.md, no AGENTS.md | Any instructions file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov 2026 | 401 | 203 (51%) | 17 (4%) | 221 (55%) |
| 1 Nov 2026 | 401 | 202 (50%) | 17 (4%) | 220 (55%) |
| 1 Oct 2026 | 372 | 175 (47%) | 21 (6%) | 196 (53%) |
| 1 Sept 2026 | 371 | 168 (45%) | 21 (6%) | 189 (51%) |
| 3 Aug 2026 | 332 | 148 (45%) | 21 (6%) | 169 (51%) |
| 2 Jul 2026 | 284 | 129 (45%) | 20 (7%) | 149 (52%) |
| 1 Jun 2026 | 245 | 96 (39%) | 18 (7%) | 114 (47%) |
| 2 May 2026 | 164 | 68 (41%) | 10 (6%) | 78 (48%) |
| 24 Apr 2026 | 155 | 63 (41%) | 9 (6%) | 72 (46%) |
Every snapshot day: the CSV.
Instructions file by language
- TypeScript · 62 of 82 (76%)
- Java · 19 of 28 (68%)
- Kotlin · 8 of 12 (67%)
- JavaScript · 9 of 15 (60%)
- Ruby · 6 of 10 (60%)
- Clojure · 3 of 5 (60%)
- PHP · 7 of 12 (58%)
- Go · 23 of 40 (57%)
- Rust · 24 of 45 (53%)
- Python · 29 of 56 (52%)
- Scala · 3 of 6 (50%)
- Zig · 3 of 6 (50%)
- C++ · 10 of 21 (48%)
- Swift · 3 of 10 (30%)
- C · 2 of 10 (20%)
- Dart · 1 of 7 (14%)
- Elixir · 1 of 7 (14%)
- Haskell · 1 of 7 (14%)
- C# · 1 of 8 (13%)
Other agent files
| File | Repos | With instructions file |
|---|---|---|
.agents/skills | 69 (17%) | 63 |
.cursor/rules or .cursorrules | 20 (5%) | 18 |
GEMINI.md | 8 (2%) | 7 |
.openhands/setup.sh | 2 (0.5%) | 2 |
.aider.conf.yml | 1 (0.2%) | 1 |
A repo with both AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md counts under AGENTS.md: the check stops at the first file with content, so how many have both isn't measured. Which one to use.
Methodology
- The sample is the leaderboard: a curated list of popular public repos on GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, rescored daily.
- A file counts when it has content; an empty AGENTS.md counts as none. AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md mean the file at the repo root.
- 133 snapshot days from 24 Apr 2026 to 3 Nov 2026, each the last committed database that day. Days with no commit, or fewer than 100 repos while the list was first filled, have no point.
- How the AGENTS.md check scores a file, and the rest of the score: methodology.
Cite this
Agent Friendly Code. "State of AGENTS.md adoption." Data as of 3 Nov 2026. https://agentfriendlycode.com/report/agents-mdEvery snapshot day is in a CSV (MIT-licensed), with the count for each file. The numbers here update with every rescore; give the date you read them.