adg: Instructions file for Codex

AGENTS.md

Guidance for AI agents (and humans) contributing to this repository. See CONTRIBUTING.md and docs/branching-and-release.md for the full process.

See docs/agents-spec.md for the canonical authoring and projection model and docs/hooks-strategy.md for the standards-first adapter philosophy.

Branch & PR rules

• All pull requests must target the develop branch. Never open a PR against main. main is reserved for stable releases and is updated only by a release PR from develop.
• Never push directly to main or develop. Both are protected; all changes land via PR + review + passing CI.
• Branch off develop for new work: git switch develop && git pull && git switch -c <type>/<short-desc>.
• Ensure clean base before branching: Verify local develop is strictly updated with origin/develop and clean (git status). If your work requires an unmerged PR, follow explicit stack dependency rules (pr-stacking-strategy) rather than implicitly carrying unmerged commits in a single branch.
• The CI check Validate base branch fails any PR whose base is not develop (the only exception is the release PR develop → main).

Commit messages

• Use Conventional Commits. The version bump, CHANGELOG.md, and GitHub Release notes are derived from them by semantic-release.
• Type → release notes section: feat: → Added, fix:/revert: → Fixed, refactor:/perf: → Changed. chore:/test:/build:/ci:/ style: are hidden from the notes.
• Mark breaking changes with ! or a BREAKING CHANGE: footer.

Local checks before opening a PR

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm test

Telemetry

• OpenTelemetry (OTel): For every new feature or requirement added, ensure you implement corresponding OpenTelemetry instrumentation (spans, events, or metrics) to maintain observability.
• OTel CLI Compliance: All CLI programs and external subprocess wrappers must strictly follow the official Semantic conventions for CLI programs:
  • Use SpanKind.INTERNAL for the CLI's own execution (callee spans) and SpanKind.CLIENT for subprocess calls (caller spans).
  • Span names must default to {process.executable.name} (e.g. "git", "claude") or documented low-cardinality values.
  • Correctly record all Required attributes: process.executable.name and process.exit.code.
  • Record process.pid when available (Recommended).
  • Correctly record error.type on failure spans (when process.exit.code !== 0) as Conditionally Required.
  • Do NOT collect process.executable.path — it is always PII and provides no analytical value after sanitization.
• Telemetry Privacy: All telemetry data must comply with privacy standards—never log raw file paths, personally identifiable information (PII), or user secrets/tokens. Sanitization (e.g., sanitizeArgs()) is mandatory before collecting process.command_args.