Report · marked 26 Aug 2026

spf13/cobra

Solid foundations, held back in a few specific places.

Go · 44,511 stars · 66 files · branch main

72 /100 B+

Instructions 3/27Whether the repo tells an agent how to behave before it starts guessing. Losing marks on agent instruction file and instruction quality.Setup 14/14Whether an agent can install the project and get it running without a human. Full marks.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 18/20Whether the repo fits in a context window, or fights it. Losing marks on file sizes fit in context.Navigability 10/10How quickly anything new can orient itself. Full marks.

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

Fix these first

Agent instruction file

Add an AGENTS.md at the root: what the project is, how to install, how to run, how to test, and the two or three conventions a newcomer always gets wrong.

Instruction quality

Instructions earn their keep by naming exact commands. 'Run the tests with `pnpm test`' beats three paragraphs of philosophy.

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.

The full marking

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

Instructions 3/27 F

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

✗Agent instruction file 0/12

None found. Every agent that opens this repo starts from zero.

Add an AGENTS.md at the root: what the project is, how to install, how to run, how to test, and the two or three conventions a newcomer always gets wrong.

Looked for AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, .cursorrules

✗Instruction quality 0/12

Nothing to judge, since there are no instructions.

Instructions earn their keep by naming exact commands. 'Run the tests with `pnpm test`' beats three paragraphs of philosophy.

✓README as an entry point 3/3

README has a clear getting-started section.

Setup 14/14 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

–Environment config n/a

Not applicable — this reads as a library, with no environment to configure.

✓Pinned runtime version 2/2

The language runtime version is pinned.

go.mod declares a Go version

–Reproducible environment n/a

Not applicable — a library doesn't need a container to be worked on.

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

17 test files against 36 source files.

e.g. active_help_test.go, args_test.go, bash_completionsV2_test.go

✓Test command is discoverable 7/7

An agent can find and run `make test`.

✓Continuous integration 4/4

2 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 18/20 A

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 24 patterns.

✗File sizes fit in context 4/6

1 source file is 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.

completions_test.go — 116KB

✓Repository weight 5/5

About 2.1MB checked out, which is comfortable.

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 spf13/cobra

# AGENTS.md

A Commander for modern Go CLI interactions

## Setup

```
go mod download
```

## Commands

```
make default
make fmt
make lint           # lint
make test           # run the test suite, must pass before any commit
make richtest
make install_deps
```

## Layout

- `doc/` 11 source files

## Conventions

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

## Gotchas

- `completions_test.go` is 116KB. 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/spf13/cobra.md

Show the mark

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[![agent ready](https://agentreadme.com/badge/spf13/cobra.svg)](https://agentreadme.com/spf13/cobra)

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All Go repositories

Think this mark is wrong?

Every deduction above names the file it came from, so this can be settled by looking. If a check missed something, that is a rule worth fixing.

Open an issue, already filled in