If it makes you feel any better, the Markdown part is optional (and has no semantics). Somehow it feels about right that the Markdown file can actually just be a YAML file with the wrong extension.
(Actually, to be more specific, a YAML file with no directives, explicitly-signalled start-of-document-content, and followed by a second null document. I will note that frontmatter syntax is not specified; the non-normative Appendix B is the only place that suggests it means prefix and suffix --- lines. And no, frontmatter is not part of Markdown, or CommonMark, and is in fact incompatible with both. And it’s invalid YAML too, the end-of-frontmatter line should be ... to indicate end of document without starting a new document.)
it is until we define real consistent deterministic gates and protocols. It really is a symptom of the lack of concerted effort. Everyone has a personal preference on how to shove the context and most of them are just "here's some good text I've found to work in my context"
THe problem is that humans often don't know - this is as much about encouraging getting the humans aligned as the agents. Completely agree agents really aren't stakeholders. Fine point. I'll update description to clarify ... thank you!
I'm less interested in this than in what people are willing to aggressively trade off against in order to get the stuff they truly care about.
For example, readability. Where are the developers out there saying "I am very willing to sacrifice a lot of readability to get even a small improvement on e.g. abstraction cleanliness", and sticking with it?
Or "performance can take a huge hit at the cost of being dead easy to read and reason about". Coming up with a list of abstractly good-sounding qualities is just prosocial signaling without knowing what you're willing to sacrifice. There should be a FUCKIT.md that enumerates these.
OP here. You're spot on. Trade-offs matter. The trade-offs are implied by the selection of what quality factors/attributes are selected and their requirements. A statement like "performance can take a huge hit at the cost of being dead easy to read and reason about" can sit right there in the QUALITY.md as a comment or in the markdown body.
(Actually, to be more specific, a YAML file with no directives, explicitly-signalled start-of-document-content, and followed by a second null document. I will note that frontmatter syntax is not specified; the non-normative Appendix B is the only place that suggests it means prefix and suffix --- lines. And no, frontmatter is not part of Markdown, or CommonMark, and is in fact incompatible with both. And it’s invalid YAML too, the end-of-frontmatter line should be ... to indicate end of document without starting a new document.)
Looks like unless something better comes up, we'll be stuck with it for a while.
I find markdown useful for repo-specific conventions, especially skills.
"Ensure stakeholders are aligned on what matters most and why"
But it is instructions for LLMs, right? A way to describe something that the humans know and the LLMs don't.
LLMs literally cannot be stakeholders, by definition.
For example, readability. Where are the developers out there saying "I am very willing to sacrifice a lot of readability to get even a small improvement on e.g. abstraction cleanliness", and sticking with it?
Or "performance can take a huge hit at the cost of being dead easy to read and reason about". Coming up with a list of abstractly good-sounding qualities is just prosocial signaling without knowing what you're willing to sacrifice. There should be a FUCKIT.md that enumerates these.