# Repository Instructions Are Becoming Engineering Artifacts. Treat Them Like It. > Source: > Published: 2026-07-08 12:03:02+00:00 Your team already treats CI config, dependency manifests, and policy files as things that need an owner, a review, and a drift check, because they shape the code you ship. Repository instruction files like CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and .cursorrules now do the same job: coding agents read them to decide how to generate, modify, and review code. But most of them currently sit outside all of it and are edited like notes, owned by no one and reviewed by nobody.