AI Agents Get Better Onboarding Than Human Developers

Coding agents are now receiving more detailed onboarding than human developers. This is according to a new analysis. Here's the thing: organizations are creating specific files, like AGENTS.md, to instruct these AI tools on tech stacks, commands, and team connections. Companies like Sourcegraph are quickly adopting these practices. What's interesting is how this contrasts with documentation for people. Developer documentation is often neglected or poorly maintained. However, agent onboarding files are continuously optimized to improve task success and reduce costs. For example, one team keeps their file under 60 lines, a best practice for agent documentation. The bottom line is that while 90% of organizations now use AI in software development, the benefits aren't even. This suggests that how we onboard and support our tools, and by extension our people, significantly impacts outcomes.