Add coding agent instructions: refuse PRs unless maintenance mode is acknowledged#63305
Merged
RyanCavanaugh merged 5 commits intomainfrom Mar 26, 2026
Merged
Conversation
Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/sessions/a1d45a4b-798d-4431-9f65-1f935c58b253 Co-authored-by: RyanCavanaugh <6685088+RyanCavanaugh@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot created this pull request from a session on behalf of
RyanCavanaugh
March 26, 2026 21:37
View session
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
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. |
jakebailey
approved these changes
Mar 26, 2026
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
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.