Using the terminal · 07

Instructions

Every turn, riffer-rig builds the model’s system message from three parts, joined by blank lines:

  1. The base prompt — a short, task-neutral text: it names the agent, says it is general purpose and works through whatever tools it has, and states three operating norms. It names no tools and no conventions, so a session without them says nothing untrue.
  2. Prompt sections — the text each extension adds with rig.prompt, in load order. AGENTS.md (below) is one of these.

  3. The environment — always last:

    Current date: <today>
Current working directory: <cwd>

When skills exist, a second system message follows with the skills catalog.

Sections and the date are re-read at the start of every turn, so a change takes effect on the next turn without a reload.

AGENTS.md

The bundled agents_md extension adds these files, whichever exist, in this order:

  1. ~/.riffer/AGENTS.md — your instructions for every project.
  2. An AGENTS.md in every directory from the filesystem root down to the working directory, outermost first. A monorepo can keep shared instructions at its root and a package’s own in the package, and a session in the package reads both.

The section tells the model these are instructions you wrote, which take precedence over the base prompt’s norms, and that a file closer to the working directory wins over one further out. Each file appears as its own block, tagged with its path:

<project_instructions path="/home/you/project/AGENTS.md">
…the file's contents…
</project_instructions>

With no file present the section is empty, and the system message doesn’t mention AGENTS.md. Relative paths inside a file are left as written; the model resolves them with its tools.

To leave AGENTS.md out, run with --no-agents-md or disable agents_md in settings. To change what it adds, register your own :agents_md section from an extension, which replaces the bundled one.

Changing the base prompt

When embedding, name: changes the agent’s name inside the base prompt (default "riffer"), and instructions: replaces the base prompt entirely. Prompt sections and the environment are added either way.