Amp

Amp AGENTS.md: File Locations, @ Mentions and Glob-Scoped Guidance

How do I give Amp project instructions with AGENTS.md?

Put an AGENTS.md file in your repo. Amp always includes AGENTS.md files in the current directory and its parents up to $HOME, plus personal files at ~/.config/amp/AGENTS.md and ~/.config/AGENTS.md. Subtree files load when the agent reads a file in that subtree.

Which files Amp reads

  • AGENTS.md in the working directory and parent directories up to $HOME: always included.
  • AGENTS.md in subtrees: included when the agent reads a file in that subtree.
  • $HOME/.config/amp/AGENTS.md and $HOME/.config/AGENTS.md: personal guidance, always included.
  • /etc/ampcode/AGENTS.md, /Library/Application Support/ampcode/AGENTS.md or %ProgramData%\ampcode\AGENTS.md: system-wide guidance.

If a directory has no AGENTS.md but has AGENT.md or CLAUDE.md, Amp includes that file instead.

Pull in other files with @ mentions

Relative paths resolve from the agent file. Absolute paths, @~/ paths and globs work. Mentions inside code blocks are ignored.

AGENTS.md

See @doc/style.md and @specs/**/*.md.

When making commits, see @doc/git-commit-instructions.md.

Guidance only for certain files

Add globs to the front matter of a mentioned file. Amp includes it only after reading a matching file.

docs/typescript-conventions.md

---
globs:
  - '**/*.ts'
  - '**/*.tsx'
---

Follow these TypeScript conventions:

- Never use the `any` type

Skip guidance files

Set AMP_IGNORE_GUIDANCE_FILES to a colon-separated list of globs. Set it to * to ignore all guidance files.

Terminal

AMP_IGNORE_GUIDANCE_FILES="$HOME/.config/amp/AGENTS.md:$HOME/.config/AGENTS.md" amp -x "do the thing"

Team and web guidance

In the web app, open Settings, then Advanced, and edit Global AGENTS.md for personal guidance. Workspace admins can do the same in Workspace Settings. Workspace guidance does not apply to subagents, Puck or raw custom agents.

Get Amp settings changes by email

When a setting, flag or permission rule in this guide changes, it goes in the weekly AgentAtlas update, checked against the vendor docs. One email a week.

Sources

Amp: AGENTS.md

More on Amp

Amp standards support

More Amp guides

Other guides

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Reviewed Oct 13, 2026. Settings change often; the linked vendor docs are the source of truth.