# ADR-0012: `CLAUDE.md` and `AGENTS.md` as the v1 renderer targets

**Status:** Accepted (2026-08-08)

## Context

The design doc names four agent targets: Claude, Codex, Kimi, and DeepSeek. Phase 2 exists to prove
the single-source-of-truth thesis — that one canonical document renders correctly into genuinely
different agent formats. Shipping only one renderer would not prove it, because nothing would force
the canonical schema to stay format-neutral; it would quietly shape itself around the single target.
Shipping all four means four renderers and four golden-test suites before the thesis is validated
even once.

## Decision

Ship **`CLAUDE.md` (Claude conventions) and `AGENTS.md` (Codex)** at 1.0. Kimi and DeepSeek land
post-1.0 as `AGENTS.md` dialects carrying the more explicit, step-by-step phrasing the design doc
calls for on weaker instruction-followers.

## Consequences

- Two formats different enough to keep the canonical schema honestly format-neutral.
- Golden-file tests cover both from phase 2; renderer correctness is that phase's actual
  deliverable.
- The renderer must be structured so a dialect (same base format, different phrasing verbosity) is
  a cheap addition rather than a fork.
- `agent_profiles` entries for Kimi and DeepSeek may exist in the canonical schema before their
  renderers do.