xy-agent
Agent Documentation Conventions
Authority. This skill is maintained only in ariestools/ariestools-skills. Copies under XYOracleNetwork/xyo-skills are redirect stubs — edit here, never there.
This skill defines how a repository tells an agent what is true. It covers one entry point (AGENTS.md), thin per-tool adapters, and a documentation tree whose folders encode lifecycle rather than topic — so that a document's age, authority, and supersession are readable without opening it.
Read the repository's own AGENTS.md first. It is authoritative for that repository. This skill describes the shape those files should take; it never overrides what a specific repository says about itself.
The rule this exists to enforce: an instruction file is only useful while it is true. Every convention below exists to make untruth detectable — by a linter, by an audit, or by an agent that reads a status column and stops.
This skill builds on the Development Skill. It is recommended, not required: a repository that does not follow this pattern is not defective, and you should follow whatever convention that repository already uses rather than converting it mid-task.
References
Repository structure
Read first when orienting in an unfamiliar repository, deciding where a new document belongs, or setting up the pattern in a repository that lacks it. Covers the canonical tree, the papers/ vs specs/ vs docs/ split, lifecycle subfolders, and immutable source archives.