mcp: Instructions file for Codex

Agents Guide — mcp

Core principle: dependencies change only on explicit instruction

Dependencies may only be changed by explicit instruction from the maintainer. This covers every dependency this repository declares, in every runtime and every manifest:

• package.json dependencies, peerDependencies and devDependencies, and their lockfiles;
• go.mod require and replace lines, their versions, and go.sum;
• Cargo.toml dependency tables and Cargo.lock;
• any other manifest here, nested test modules included.

Adding, removing, re-pointing or re-versioning any of them is a dependency change.

• A dependency never arrives as a side effect. Watch for an import, go mod tidy, npm install, cargo update, a stamped template, or a fix for something else. If a change would alter a dependency, stop and ask before making it. Do not make it and explain afterwards.
• An explicit instruction names the change, for example "bump the parser requirement in X to 0.12" or "cascade the parser release". A goal is not an instruction for its means. "Make CI green", "ship the C library" or "fix the build" does not authorise a dependency change, however direct the route through one looks.
• This repository's own version sites are not dependencies. They include the root entry of its own lockfile. A release bump moves them.
• Versions track the latest release. Every dependency is kept at its latest published version, and none is held on an older one. That is the maintainer's standing instruction, so moving a dependency to its latest version needs no further one. Holding a dependency back, or adding, removing or re-pointing one, still does.

Core principle: transient tasks report progress

Every transient task produces status output at least every 30 seconds, with an estimate of how far through it is, as a percentage, where one can be made. This is the maintainer's instruction. A transient task is any work that runs for a while and then ends: a build, a test or conformance sweep, an install or a fetch, a release, a wait on CI, a benchmark, a script or loop you write, and anything sent to the background.