Add coding agent instructions: refuse PRs unless maintenance mode is acknowledged - #63305
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Ryan Cavanaugh (RyanCavanaugh) merged 5 commits intoMar 26, 2026
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Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/sessions/a1d45a4b-798d-4431-9f65-1f935c58b253 Co-authored-by: RyanCavanaugh <6685088+RyanCavanaugh@users.noreply.github.com>
Ryan Cavanaugh (RyanCavanaugh)
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March 26, 2026 21:46
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Pull request overview
Adds repository-wide guidance for coding agents to recognize TypeScript’s JavaScript codebase maintenance-mode status and require explicit user acknowledgement before proceeding with code/PR work.
Changes:
- Added new root
AGENTS.mdcontaining a maintenance-mode “stop” block and required agent behavior. - Prepended the same maintenance-mode “stop” block to
.github/copilot-instructions.md. - Added HTML “coding agents” directives to
README.mdandCONTRIBUTING.mdpointing agents toAGENTS.md.
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| README.md | Adds an agent-only directive to read AGENTS.md before making coding changes. |
| CONTRIBUTING.md | Adds an agent-only directive to read AGENTS.md before making coding changes. |
| AGENTS.md | Introduces centralized maintenance-mode instructions and refusal/acknowledgement requirements for agents. |
| .github/copilot-instructions.md | Prepends maintenance-mode instructions to the existing Copilot guidance. |
Ryan Cavanaugh (RyanCavanaugh)
enabled auto-merge
March 26, 2026 22:05
Jake Bailey (jakebailey)
approved these changes
Mar 26, 2026
Ryan Cavanaugh (RyanCavanaugh)
deleted the
copilot/add-instructions-for-coding-agents
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March 26, 2026 22:30
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Closes / relates to #62963.
Summary
This repository is in maintenance mode — TypeScript 6.0 is the last JavaScript-based release and general development has moved to microsoft/TypeScript-Go. However, coding agents (Copilot, Claude, Cursor, etc.) have no way to know this unless we tell them explicitly in their standard instruction files.
This PR adds a prominent "STOP: maintenance mode" block at the top of each agent instruction file, instructing agents to:
microsoft/TypeScript-Go.Files changed
.github/copilot-instructions.mdCLAUDE.md.cursorrulesAll three files contain identical warning text so every agent type sees the same instruction regardless of which file it reads.