agentreadme

Report · marked 10 Oct 2026

hashicorp/vault

Solid foundations, held back in a few specific places.

Go · 36,376 stars · 9,564 files · branch main

79 /100 A-
Instructions 20/27Whether the repo tells an agent how to behave before it starts guessing. Losing marks on agent instruction file and instruction quality.Setup 18/20Whether an agent can install the project and get it running without a human. Losing marks on environment config.Verification loop 22/22Whether an agent can check its own work. This is the category that most decides whether agent output is trustworthy. Full marks.Context economy 13/20Whether the repo fits in a context window, or fights it. Losing marks on file sizes fit in context and repository weight.Navigability 5/10How quickly anything new can orient itself. Losing marks on written documentation and license.

Higher is better. Accent marks what is costing you most.

Fix these first

01
Agent instruction file
Rename or symlink to AGENTS.md so tools other than one vendor's can read it. Keeping Copilot instructions alongside it costs nothing.
02
File sizes fit in context
A single file that fills the context window forces an agent to work from fragments, and it will confidently edit code it never saw. Splitting the worst offenders pays for itself immediately.
03
Repository weight
Large binaries and vendored trees slow every operation an agent performs. Git LFS or a separate assets repo keeps the working tree navigable.

The full marking

Every deduction below names the file or setting it came from.

Instructions 20/27 B+

Whether the repo tells an agent how to behave before it starts guessing.

✗Agent instruction file 8/12
Copilot instructions is present, but not the vendor-neutral AGENTS.md.
Rename or symlink to AGENTS.md so tools other than one vendor's can read it. Keeping Copilot instructions alongside it costs nothing.
✗Instruction quality 10/12
Specific enough that an agent can act on it.
Worth fixing: has no code blocks.
2,206 characters, a workable length
names the actual commands to run
uses headings, so an agent can skim it
✗README as an entry point 2/3
README exists but never explains how to get the thing running.
Give the README an Install and a Usage heading with real commands under each. Agents pattern-match on those headings.
Setup 18/20 A

Whether an agent can install the project and get it running without a human.

✓Deterministic install 6/6
go.sum pins the dependency tree.
Found go.sum
✓Discoverable commands 6/6
Commands are declared where an agent will look for them.
Makefile
scripts/ directory
✗Environment config 2/4
Env vars are mentioned in the README but there's no example file to copy.
Add a .env.example listing every variable with a safe placeholder value. It's the cheapest possible fix and it unblocks the whole first run.
✓Pinned runtime version 2/2
The language runtime version is pinned.
Found .nvmrc
✓Reproducible environment 2/2
dockerfile gives a known-good environment.
Verification loop 22/22 A+

Whether an agent can check its own work. This is the category that most decides whether agent output is trustworthy.

✓Tests exist 8/8
1670 test files against 5045 source files.
e.g. api/api_test.go, api/auth/approle/approle_test.go, api/auth/cert/cert_test.go
✓Test command is discoverable 7/7
An agent can find and run `make test`.
✓Continuous integration 4/4
37 GitHub Actions workflows define what "passing" means.
✓Lint and format rules 3/3
.golangci.yml encodes the house style.
–Static type checking n/a
Not applicable — the Go compiler type checks every build.
Context economy 13/20 B

Whether the repo fits in a context window, or fights it.

✓No committed build output 6/6
No generated directories committed.
✓.gitignore hygiene 3/3
.gitignore covers 102 patterns.
✗File sizes fit in context 2/6
18 source files are over 100KB.
A single file that fills the context window forces an agent to work from fragments, and it will confidently edit code it never saw. Splitting the worst offenders pays for itself immediately.
builtin/logical/pki/backend_test.go — 297KB
vault/logical_system.go — 246KB
vault/logical_system_test.go — 221KB
✗Repository weight 2/5
About 366MB checked out. Large enough that cloning and searching are both slow.
Large binaries and vendored trees slow every operation an agent performs. Git LFS or a separate assets repo keeps the working tree navigable.

Here is your AGENTS.md

Drafted from what is actually in this repository: the install command from your lockfile, the commands you already declare, your real directory layout. Anything marked TODO needs a person. Save it at the root as AGENTS.md.

AGENTS.md — drafted for hashicorp/vault 
# AGENTS.md

A tool for secrets management, encryption as a service, and privileged access management

## Setup

```
go mod download
```

## Commands

```
make default
make bin
make dev       # run locally
make dev       # run locally
make dev-ui
make dev-ui
```

## Layout

- `ui/`      2442 source files
- `vault/`   477 source files
- `builtin/` 417 source files
- `sdk/`     372 source files
- `command/` 340 source files
- `tools/`   256 source files

## Conventions

- Tests live alongside the code they cover, following `api/api_test.go`.
- CI defines what passing means. See `.github/workflows/actionlint.yml`, and keep it green.
- TODO: add the two or three conventions a newcomer always gets wrong here.

## Gotchas

- `builtin/logical/pki/backend_test.go` is 297KB. It will not fit comfortably in context, so read it in parts.

---

Drafted by agentreadme.com from what is in this repository. Everything marked TODO
needs a human. Check it in as AGENTS.md at the root.

Open the raw markdown  or  curl -o AGENTS.md agentreadme.com/draft/hashicorp/vault.md

A draft gets the commands right and stops at the things only a maintainer knows. What a good Go AGENTS.md looks like covers what to add by hand, and what AGENTS.md is explains the format itself.

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agent ready 79 out of 100

[![agent ready](https://agentreadme.com/badge/hashicorp/vault.svg)](https://agentreadme.com/hashicorp/vault)

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All Go repositories

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