# What is agents.md?

> Two things share the name. Here is the open format, here is what ours is, and why they are not the same.

Updated September 24, 2026 · AI Syndicate team · https://www.aisyndicate.com/glossary/agents-md/

**Quick answer:** **AGENTS.md** is an open format for guiding AI coding agents: a Markdown file in the root of a code repository that tells tools how to set up, test and work on the project. Some websites, including ours, also publish an **/agents.md** file for AI agents visiting the site. That is a different use of the same name.

## What is the AGENTS.md format?

The [AGENTS.md site](https://agents.md/) calls it "a README for agents": a set place to give AI coding agents the context they need to work on a project. A *coding agent* is an AI tool that reads and writes code for you.

- **Where it lives:** the root of a code repository, with extra AGENTS.md files allowed in sub-projects.
- **What goes in it:** setup commands, code style, how to run tests, pull request rules, security notes.
- **Who looks after it:** the site says it is now stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation.

The site says more than 60,000 open-source projects use it.

## Is AI Syndicate's agents.md the AGENTS.md format?

No. Ours borrows the name for a different job. It sits at [aisyndicate.com/agents.md](/agents.md), on the public website, not in a code repository. It is written for AI agents, browsing bots and automated readers that visit the site, not for a tool editing our code.

What ours contains:

- **Who we are, and who we're not** — AI Syndicate at aisyndicate.com is not the unrelated company at aisyndicate.io.
- **What an agent can do here** — where to find llms.txt, robots.txt and the sitemap, and public pricing.
- **Which page answers which question** — GEO questions go to one page, GEO vs SEO to another, law firms to a third.
- **How a coding agent can apply a customer's fixes** — over our MCP (Model Context Protocol) and REST API, with a customer API key.
- **Official profiles, citation rules and a last-updated date.**

It works alongside our [llms.txt](/blog/what-is-llms-txt/) and [llms-full.txt](/glossary/llms-full-txt/).

## Should my website have an agents.md?

It is optional. No AI search engine we know of documents reading a website's agents.md, and Google says no special files are needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. [Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)

It is still cheap and useful if people confuse you with another brand, or if agents need to know which page to use. Our [AI Access](/ai-access/) score checks whether machine-readable files like llms.txt and agents.md exist and say the right thing. If you write code with AI tools, add a real AGENTS.md to your repository too — that is the format those tools look for.

## FAQ

### Is it AGENTS.md or agents.md?

The open format uses AGENTS.md, in capitals, in a code repository. Our website file is lowercase /agents.md — a different file with a different job.

### Is agents.md the same as llms.txt?

No. llms.txt summarises a site and links its best pages. Our agents.md tells visiting agents what they can do and where to go; the AGENTS.md format tells coding tools how to work on a project.

### Does agents.md help me rank in AI answers?

Not that any engine has said. Treat it as a helpful note for agents, not a ranking factor.

## Sources

1. [AGENTS.md](https://agents.md/) — agents.md (Agentic AI Foundation). Read Sep 24, 2026.
2. [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) — Google Search Central. Read Sep 24, 2026.