Slim agents-md to AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md existence

Andrew Dunnrequested to merge
agents-md-slim into main

What

The agents-md standard stops mandating the .ai/<topic>.md internal layout. The check now asserts the interop kernel only: AGENTS.md and the CLAUDE.md shim exist at the repository root. Internal layout becomes the project's discretion.

Why

  • The dispatch hop works against agents in practice: rules behind a link are rules an agent misses. Agent harnesses read AGENTS.md natively; they follow topic links only when they choose to.
  • The topic files duplicate conventions CONTRIBUTING.md already owns (commits, git, trailers), and duplicated convention docs drift.
  • Prescribing exact internal filenames asserts a shape where the standard should assert an outcome.

Scope

  • standards/agents-md/check.sh drops the .ai/ asserts (two check_file_exists remain) and SKILL.md is reframed; the conditional-file table is gone.
  • templates/{paper,lab,docs} and the standard's own scaffold fold their .ai/ content into self-contained AGENTS.md files.
  • Site follows the moved content: llms-txt.ts raw-page sources, template .astro pages, one CSS comment pointer.
  • The reference repository's own root .ai/ tree stays: a permitted layout choice, no longer a mandated or canonical one.

Validation

just guard, just validate, just check-one STANDARD=agents-md, and just check-self all pass; the sole raw FAIL (posture) is pre-existing on main. Consumers pinned to a tagged release see this at their next re-pin; the two current consumers carry a dated agents-md exemption until then.

Merge request reports