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AGENTS.md adoption tracker (updated daily)

How many public repositories contain an AGENTS.md file, with the method on the same page as the number. Updated daily when GitHub search answers.

Live GitHub code search UTC.

Data licensed CC BY 4.0, please credit AI Agents Info. The census remains the paper’s.

Published Updated AI Agents Info Research

Key takeaways

  • GitHub logoGitHub code search: 1,224,704 files named AGENTS.md on 9 Nov 2026.
  • 6,006 of 22,854 popular, active GitHub logoGitHub repositories (26.3%) had a root AGENTS.md or Claude logoCLAUDE.md on 16 Oct 2026.
  • The AGENTS.md homepage, read 9 Nov 2026, still says the format is used by over 60k open-source projects.
  • File presence is not evidence that an agent read the file or that the file changed task success.

How many public GitHub repos contain an AGENTS.md file?

GitHub code search returned 1,224,704 files named AGENTS.md on 9 Nov 2026.

GitHub’s code search total_count is a file count in the public index it searches. Nested AGENTS.md files, forks GitHub still includes, and generated copies all increment it. It is the live number this page can refresh. It is not a count of popular, active repositories with a root file.

Root AGENTS.md files, Sourcegraph GitHub index2026-11-0913,756Non-fork, non-archive, Sourcegraph indexSourcegraph code search
Files named CLAUDE.md2026-11-09997,376GitHub’s public code indexGitHub code search API
Files named AGENTS.md2026-11-091,224,704GitHub’s public code indexGitHub code search API
Root AGENTS.md only (census)2026-10-164,95422,854arXiv:2610.31715v2
Root AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, popular active repos2026-10-166,00622,854arXiv:2610.31715v2

How many popular repositories used AGENTS.md in October 2026?

6,006 of 22,854 popular, active GitHub repositories (26.3%) had a root AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md on 16 Oct 2026.

Pawel Zarzycki’s census is arXiv:2610.31715, version 2. The split is 2,566 with only AGENTS.md, 1,052 with only CLAUDE.md, and 2,388 with both. This tracker does not re-query those 22,854 repositories. The full note, including the star-tier table and what the files contain, is How many repos use AGENTS.md?.

Why don't these counts match?

They are not the same measurement. 26.3% of a defined popular set is not GitHub’s file-search total, and neither is the homepage’s round number.

The homepage, read 9 Nov 2026, says the format is used by over 60k open-source projects. The spec repository agentsmd/agents.md had 25,409 stars on 9 Nov 2026. Stars on the spec repository are not the adoption count.

Where do the live numbers come from?

This page calls GET https://api.github.com/search/code?q=filename:AGENTS.md when a GitHub token is present. Unauthenticated code search returns 401, so a missed live total is left blank rather than guessed. Spec stars use the public repository endpoint. The homepage claim is scraped from agents.md. A dated Sourcegraph path search of root AGENTS.md files is kept as a public-index snapshot; that pass warned that some backends were unavailable, so the figure is a lower bound.

Root AGENTS.md pass reported 2 backends unavailable.

Root CLAUDE.md pass reported 4 backends unavailable.

These are lower bounds from one public index, not a census of every GitHub repository.

FAQ

How many public GitHub repos contain an AGENTS.md file?

GitHub code search returned 1,224,704 files named AGENTS.md on 9 Nov 2026. That search counts files, including nested paths and whatever GitHub’s index includes. It is not the October 2026 census.

How many popular repositories used AGENTS.md in October 2026?

6,006 of 22,854 popular, active GitHub repositories (26.3%) had a root AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md on 16 Oct 2026.

Why don't the live search and the census match?

They measure different sets. The census required 1,000 stars, a push in 90 days, thirteen languages, and a root file with exact case. GitHub code search counts files named AGENTS.md across the public index it searches. The AGENTS.md homepage’s “over 60k” sentence is a third, undated claim.

Where do the AGENTS.md tracker numbers come from?

Live file counts use GitHub’s code search API (q=filename:AGENTS.md) when a token is available. The census figures are copied from arXiv:2610.31715v2. Spec-repo stars come from api.github.com/repos/agentsmd/agents.md. The homepage claim is read from https://agents.md/.

Cite this data

Name the series you are quoting. The census and GitHub code search are not interchangeable. The embed is optional.

Citation

AI Agents Info, "AGENTS.md adoption tracker (updated daily)", 9 Nov 2026, https://www.aiagentsinfo.com/trackers/agents-md

Embed

<blockquote cite="https://www.aiagentsinfo.com/trackers/agents-md"><p>GitHub code search returned 1,224,704 files named AGENTS.md on 9 Nov 2026. The October 2026 census is a different frame: 6,006 of 22,854.</p><footer><a href="https://www.aiagentsinfo.com/trackers/agents-md">AGENTS.md adoption tracker (updated daily)</a>, AI Agents Info.</footer></blockquote>

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