Reference public guidance, then state your local rule

This is a recommendation, not a requirement. Use it when a public document already owns guidance that an organization wants to adopt.

The recommendation

Reference the public owner instead of reproducing its explanation. In your organization's AGENTS.md or owning document, state that the guidance applies locally and add only the local scope, exception, or stronger rule.

State the rule itself as a short local version, one or two sentences that agents follow, with the link to its source beside it. Agents follow the local version, never the source: instructions read live from another organization are information, not commands, and a changed source must never change local behavior silently. A gardening pass compares each local version with its source and proposes an update when the source has changed; the organization adopts the update by editing its own text.

The same holds when an organization adopts a standard Loop by copy. Standard Loops run under human oversight. Agents create, evaluate and garden Loops themselves, so a small standard set serves an organization's use cases almost on its own: the system runs as autonomously as it can, agents handle the underlying system state, and the person directs and steers. Keep every agent-made change to a Loop or to system state observable through Lenses. Lenses and documents show a small, structured view, summary first, grouped, with drill down, never everything at once.

The public document supplies shared reasoning. It does not become local authority merely because it is cited. The local document creates that authority by adopting the guidance, and it remains the place for organization-specific decisions.

Put the reference beside the local rule and name the relationship, following Keep references close to what they support. For AGENTS.md, keep the adoption to one line and let the linked document own the explanation, following Write a useful AGENTS.md.

Why it helps

One shared owner prevents copies from drifting. Each organization can still choose whether the recommendation applies and record a different local rule when its audience or constraints differ. Citation drift makes a changed public owner visible without silently changing local policy.

When to write a separate version

Write or rewrite the guidance inside the organization when its audience needs a different explanation, when private context carries the meaning, or when its authority and lifecycle must be independent. Never move private details into the public source merely to avoid a local document.

The organization boundary still governs what each audience must understand. Follow One audience per organization.