Re: [RFC 1/2] AI: Add unified AI coding assistant configuration

[Sasha Levin]

On Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 06:15:33PM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 12:27:50PM -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> > Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> >
> > > Create a single source of truth for AI instructions in
> > > Documentation/AI/main.md with symlinks for all major AI coding
> > > assistants:
> > > - CLAUDE.md (Claude Code)
> > > - .github/copilot-instructions.md (GitHub Copilot)
> > > - .cursorrules (Cursor)
> > > - .codeium/instructions.md (Codeium)
> > > - .continue/context.md (Continue)
> > > - .windsurfrules (Windsurf)
> > > - Documentation/AIder.conf.yml (Aider)
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > > ---
> > > .aider.conf.yml                 | 1 +
> > > .codeium/instructions.md        | 1 +
> > > .continue/context.md            | 1 +
> > > .cursorrules                    | 1 +
> > > .github/copilot-instructions.md | 1 +
> > > .windsurfrules                  | 1 +
> > > CLAUDE.md                       | 1 +
> > > Documentation/AI/main.md        | 5 +++++
> >
> > So I'm gonna ignore (for now) the substantive issues here to ask: do we
> > *really* need to introduce Markdown into Documentation/?  Are these
> > things really unable to understand RST?  Why not add a file that can be
> > part of the docs build so people can see the instructions that are being
> > provided?
>
> From my understanding, most of the agents out there expect a markdown
> file ("CLAUDE.md", ".github/copilot-instructions.md", etc).
>
> All the documentation and examples I can find online insist on
> markdown... I suspect that they will also understand RST, but then we'll
> be doing something "unsupported".
>
> Though in this scenario, maybe even just plain text will be enough?

I've tested providing a RST file instead of markdown to Claude, Copilot,
and Cursor. All 3 seemed to be okay with it and followed the
instructions in it.

I'll switch to RST.

--
Thanks,
Sasha