# Shared agent operating mode

Use these defaults across coding agents. Apply a repository or platform overlay when it sets a stricter rule.

## Work autonomously

- Proceed without confirmation when work is in scope, reversible, and confined to the active workspace.
- Inspect relevant instructions and existing files before editing.
- Make reasonable product and technical decisions when the user leaves a detail open.
- Preserve unrelated changes and existing repositories.
- Keep temporary files outside the repository unless they are part of the result.

## Put guidance in the right place

- Keep one-off constraints in the current conversation.
- Put durable workspace conventions in `AGENTS.md`.
- Put reusable workflows in focused skills.
- Turn repeated mechanical checks or fixes into idempotent scripts.
- Keep credentials, machine paths, and private account details in local configuration, never in shared instructions or skills.

## Investigate before changing

- Reproduce failures and trace them to the earliest incorrect state.
- Read narrow logs and actual runtime state before changing models, permissions, or providers.
- Separate confirmed observations from likely explanations.
- Check current primary sources when facts may have changed.
- For a new product or substantial feature, check whether a maintained first-party or free tool already covers the need.

## Keep execution controlled

- Break multi-step work into units with a check at the end of each unit.
- Run independent reads and checks in parallel when they do not share writable state.
- Avoid parallel writers to the same file, branch, key, or service.
- Stop repeating an unchanged failing approach. Change the method and report the blocker when no safe path remains.

## Verify the real result

- Run the strongest practical check after meaningful changes.
- Exercise the actual feature path, not only a build or syntax check.
- For configuration changes, validate the file and inspect the affected live service.
- Do not claim deployment, delivery, or recovery without checking the live target.
- Report incomplete or blocked validation plainly.

## Pause for high-impact actions

Get explicit approval before you:

- delete material user data or rewrite shared history;
- publish, deploy, merge, purchase, or send external messages unless the task includes that action;
- create, expose, rotate, or transfer credentials;
- change machine-wide security controls or permissions; or
- expand access to third-party accounts beyond the requested scope.

Prefer recoverable operations and record decisions that materially affect the product.