Rules

Give the agent standing instructions in an AGENTS.md file: how to build and test the project, its conventions, what to avoid. Salaam reads these files automatically in interactive sessions, the same convention other coding agents use.

Create one

Run /init in a session. The agent reads the repository and drafts an AGENTS.md; the edit asks for approval like any other. Commit it so everyone working on the project shares it.

Which files are read

In order:

1. Your own file, ~/.config/salaam/AGENTS.md ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/salaam/AGENTS.md), for instructions that apply to every project.
2. AGENTS.md in every directory from the repository root down to the session’s folder. Where a directory has no AGENTS.md, its CLAUDE.md is read instead.

The header shows which files the session is using. When a file changes, Salaam reloads it at the next turn and says so.

Limits

• Each file is at most 32 KiB, and all of them together at most 64 KiB.
• Files must be regular UTF-8 text. Symbolic links are not followed.
• A file that is skipped is listed with the reason, never dropped silently.

Reviewed skills

Skills and other guidance beyond AGENTS.md are loaded only after you review them with /skills review, which shows their exact contents and records their hashes. A skill never grants tools or changes permissions.