Instructions

Instructions are always-on context for the Zed Agent. Use instructions for persistent guidance that should apply to every relevant agent interaction.

Use Skills instead when you want reusable task instructions that can be invoked by name.

Zed supports AGENTS.md as the primary instruction file for personal and project-level agent guidance.

Personal Instructions

Personal instructions apply to every project you open with the Zed Agent.

Create or edit:

~/.config/zed/AGENTS.md

On Windows, the equivalent file is under %APPDATA%\Zed\AGENTS.md.

Project Instructions

Project instruction files apply to the current project. Zed uses the first matching file in this list:

.rules
.cursorrules
.windsurfrules
.clinerules
.github/copilot-instructions.md
AGENT.md
AGENTS.md
CLAUDE.md
GEMINI.md

Project instructions override personal AGENTS.md when they conflict.

Instruction File Support

File	Zed Agent	External Agents	Terminal Threads
`~/.config/zed/AGENTS.md`	Loaded as personal instructions	Not generally used	Not used unless the CLI reads it
Project `AGENTS.md`	Loaded as project instructions	Depends on the agent	Depends on the CLI
`CLAUDE.md`	Loaded as compatible project instructions by Zed Agent	Claude reads natively	Claude Code CLI reads natively
`.github/copilot-instructions.md`	Loaded as compatible project instructions by Zed Agent	Depends on the agent	Depends on the CLI

External Agents and Terminal Threads may read their own native instruction files directly. Do not assume Zed's instruction loader controls those agents.

Instructions vs. Skills

Use	Best for	Example
Instructions	Always-on guidance	Repository conventions, preferred tone, project constraints
Skills	Reusable task workflows	Code review checklist, release workflow, migration helper

Migrating from Rules

Rules have been replaced by Skills and Instructions:

reusable, on-demand Rules become Skills
default, always-on Rules become personal AGENTS.md
project .rules files remain supported as compatibility project instruction files