Module
Module 4 of 5Lesson 2 of 3~16 min

The intent file and repository conventions

For a coding agent to respect what you want built, it has to find it in the repository, in a form it can read. This lesson shows what an intent file brings to a feature, how it fits with the spec and with CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, and what these files do not guarantee.

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Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write a feature's versioned intent file and split information between that file, the spec and the repository instructions file (CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md).

Topics covered

  • intent file
  • CLAUDE.md
  • AGENTS.md
  • repository conventions
  • coding agents

Where it fits

Specs for coding agents

What do you need to write so an AI coding agent builds the right thing, and how do you check before and after?

Lessons in this module

  1. What a coding agent needs
  2. The intent file and repository conventions (this lesson)
  3. Review an agent's plan against the spec

What you will learn in the course

This lesson is part of the course Write specs that developers and AI agents understand

  • Choose the level of spec suited to the decision at hand (PRD, feature spec, ticket) and know what each must contain.
  • State the intent of a feature (problem, target outcome, constraints, non-goals) separately from the solution, to leave the right room to the team and the agent.
  • Write verifiable, declarative and unambiguous Given/When/Then acceptance criteria, including as tables of examples.
  • Identify edge cases and non-functional requirements (performance, security, accessibility, personal data) and make them testable.
  • Write a spec and an intent file that a coding agent can use (context, constraints, files involved, out of scope, verifiable definition of done).
  • Review a coding agent's plan against the spec, spot gaps before it writes code, then check the evidence of what was delivered.
  • Keep a spec alive (versions, decisions, updates when the code reveals a case) and spot the anti-patterns that make it useless.

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