Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to docushell/ethos. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docushell/ethos/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/docushell/ethosWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docushell/ethos/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docushell/ethos/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/docushell/ethos/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/docushell/ethos/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/docushell/ethos/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00295 | $0.00295 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00118 | $0.00118 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00059 | $0.00059 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00030 | $0.00030 |
Grade A, and why
ethos AGENTS.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
What it actually says
Agent instructions
Implementing anything in this repository? Start from an explicitly scoped issue, PR, or decider
request. For release-specific work, read the current docs/v<version>-release-prep.md before
writing code. Do not infer a new public surface or workstream from historical planning records.
Other authoritative context, in reading order:
- The scoped issue, PR, or decider request; for a release train, its
docs/v<version>-release-prep.md. docs/execution-status.md— current release state and explicit blockers.README.md+docs/public-boundary-claims.json— approved public wording; never edit claim strings without the approval lane.SPEC.md,docs/determinism-contract.md,docs/decisions/(ADRs) — contracts and decisions.docs/roadmap.md,IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md— public direction and historical milestones.
Hard rules that apply to every change: determinism is a contract (byte-identical output under a
pinned profile — add double-run tests for new artifacts); fail closed on missing capability;
claims gate must stay green; no AGPL dependencies; PDFium stays caller-provided unless an
accepted ADR says otherwise; every landed change adds a CHANGELOG.md entry under Unreleased.
Imported Claude Cowork project instructions
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 2mo ago First seen · 23 lines · 295 tokens per session scan A ea78115c664d
ethos AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository docushell/ethos (6 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 295 tokens to every session, about $0.0012 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.
ethos AGENTS.md compared with instructions from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ethos AGENTS.mddocushell/ethos | Instructions file | 6 | 2mo ago | Apache-2.0 | A | 295 | Codex, OpenCode |
| vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 9,719 | GitHub Copilot |
| next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js | Instructions file | 143k | yesterday | MIT | A | 7,461 | Codex, OpenCode |
| langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain | Instructions file | 149k | yesterday | MIT | A | 4,680 | Codex, OpenCode |
| vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 5,516 | GitHub Copilot |
| vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode | Instructions file | 195k | yesterday | MIT | A | 3,093 | GitHub Copilot |
| deepseek-harness AGENTS.mddeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness | Instructions file | 274k | 2d ago | MIT | A | 4,313 | Codex, OpenCode |