Audit an AGENTS.md for Context Bloat

The decision behind the technique

Instruction files often grow by accretion: solved incidents, duplicated setup steps and long examples remain forever. The result is higher usage and lower signal.

Every line should change a likely Codex decision or point to a maintained source that does.

A practical step-by-step workflow

Use this sequence as a default, then tighten or expand it only when the evidence changes.

• Mark each rule as global, local, reference or obsolete
• Delete facts available from package scripts and code
• Move long procedures into task-specific Skills
• Run a before-and-after representative task

Failure boundary and finish line

Do not remove a seemingly rare rule before checking whether it protects a destructive or compliance-sensitive path.

Finish when the configuration is smaller, reproducible and still preserves every required safety boundary.