Skip to main content
Early Access. Commands and behavior can change between releases.
Architech reads your project’s AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md and puts it last in the prompt: the final thing the model reads before your turn, as your project’s working rules. Put your build commands, conventions and house rules there.

​
Which file wins

Architech looks in your working directory and every directory above it. In each directory the first of these names wins and the rest are skipped. One file per directory, never merged: AGENTS.override.md → AGENTS.md → AGENTS.MD → CLAUDE.md → CLAUDE.MD The files load root first, with the nearest file last. The closer a file is to where you started Architech, the later the model reads it, and the more weight it carries when files disagree. With this tree, launched from packages/api/:
Both apply; packages/api/AGENTS.md has the final word. An AGENTS.md and a CLAUDE.md in the same directory don’t combine: AGENTS.md comes first in the list above, so only it loads.

​
Placement in the prompt

Your files go in word for word as project instructions, root first and nearest last, before your turn. Keep build commands and conventions there so agents can use them while they work. It loads in every mode: the full Architech session, agent mode (architech agent) and Prime. The sub-agents Architech starts get it too, so agents editing your repository follow your conventions. To start without your project files, run architech --no-context-files (short form -nc). Architech ships internal files in its own bundle directory. Those never count as your project context; only files you wrote do.

​
Project context and the framework

Your project files describe your project, not the built-in agents. The orchestrator and specialist agents ship inside Architech; /onboard sets up local memory and engineering rules and doesn’t copy the agents into your repository. If you pick a board, onboarding also writes .architech/factory/factory.yaml and one pointer in CLAUDE.md. So .architech can hold project configuration without a copy of the framework. An older project may already carry a framework copy; follow onboarding’s migration steps instead of deleting it by hand. If several context files have identical content, Architech includes it once and keeps the nearest copy. Put project conventions in your context and rules; you can’t edit system agents through the agent menu.