What is knowns GEMINI.md?

A compatibility instruction file for the Knowns repository-memory system when an agent runtime looks for GEMINI.md. It directs the agent to read KNOWNS.md, the repository’s main source of instructions, before working.

Use it in repositories that use Knowns for task notes, documentation, workflow state, and agent guidance. It points agents to the appropriate search, retrieval, and code workflows.

It keeps runtimes that recognise GEMINI.md aligned with the repository’s canonical guidance. This reduces the chance that an agent follows outdated or incomplete instructions.

How knowns-dev/knowns configures Gemini CLI

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to knowns-dev/knowns. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knowns-dev/knowns/main/GEMINI.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/knowns-dev/knowns

Made for: Gemini CLI.

Wrote 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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-md/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-md)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/knowns-dev/knowns/gemini-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 513 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 513 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

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	$0.00513	$0.00513
Opus 5.5	$0.00205	$0.00205
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00103	$0.00103
Haiku 4.5	$0.00051	$0.00051

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 7088184f24aa, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

knowns GEMINI.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.

GEMINI.md · 43 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 43 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GEMINI

Compatibility entrypoint for runtimes that auto-detect GEMINI.md.

@KNOWNS.md

CRITICAL: You MUST read and follow KNOWNS.md in the repository root before doing any work. It is the canonical source of truth for all agent behavior in this project.

Canonical Guidance

Knowns is the repository memory layer for humans and the AI-friendly working layer for agents.
The source of truth for repo-level agent guidance is KNOWNS.md.
Read KNOWNS.md first whenever the runtime supports reading repository files.
Load behavior, memory policy, and workflow rules from KNOWNS.md; treat this file only as a compatibility entrypoint.
If this file and KNOWNS.md differ, follow KNOWNS.md.

Minimum Rules

Use Knowns as the canonical system for tasks, docs, templates, and workflow state.
Never manually edit Knowns-managed task or doc markdown.
Search first, then read only relevant docs and code.
Use search for discovery; use MCP retrieve tool when a workflow needs structured context with citations. Fall back to CLI knowns retrieve if MCP is unavailable.
For code operations, use code tool: symbols for structure, find for search, references/definition for navigation, rename/replace/insert/delete for editing. Use help("code.*") for details.
Plan before implementation unless the user explicitly overrides that workflow.
Validate before considering work complete.
Use memory tools: memory({ action: "list" }) at session start, memory({ action: "add" }) after tasks for reusable knowledge.
Proactively capture durable memory based on KNOWNS.md memory rules; do not wait for an explicit user instruction to save memory when scope and durability are clear.

Quick Reference

knowns doc list --plain               # List docs
knowns task list --plain              # List tasks
knowns task <id> --plain              # View task
knowns doc "<path>" --plain --smart  # View doc
knowns search "query" --plain        # Search docs/tasks
knowns retrieve "query" --json      # Retrieve structured context pack (CLI fallback)

Read the full file on GitHub · 43 lines

Changes

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 · 43 lines · 513 tokens per session scan A 7088184f24aa

Subscribe to this mod's changes

knowns GEMINI.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository knowns-dev/knowns (251 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 513 tokens to every session, about $0.0021 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 2026-08-30.

ai ai-agents ai-native ai-workflow cli context-management

knowns GEMINI.md next to 6 instructions from other repositories
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knowns GEMINI.mdknowns-dev/knowns	Instructions file	251	1mo ago	MIT	A	513	Gemini CLI
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knowns: Instructions file for Gemini CLI