Report · marked 25 Aug 2026
torvalds/linux
An agent is close to flying blind in this repository.
C · 244,380 stars · 67,514 files · branch master
31
/100
D
Instructions
2/27Whether the repo tells an agent how to behave before it starts guessing. Losing marks on agent instruction file and instruction quality.Setup
6/14Whether an agent can install the project and get it running without a human. Losing marks on deterministic install and pinned runtime version.Verification loop
7/25Whether an agent can check its own work. This is the category that most decides whether agent output is trustworthy. Losing marks on tests exist and test command is discoverable.Context economy
9/20Whether the repo fits in a context window, or fights it. Losing marks on file sizes fit in context and repository weight.Navigability
6/10How quickly anything new can orient itself. Losing marks on repository description and license.
Higher is better. Accent marks what is costing you most.
Fix these first
01
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.
02
Instruction quality
Instructions earn their keep by naming exact commands. 'Run the tests with `pnpm test`' beats three paragraphs of philosophy.
03
Test command is discoverable
Add a `test` script or a `test` target that runs the whole suite with no arguments. The convention is the interface — an agent tries `npm test` and `make test` before it tries reading your CI config.
The full marking
Every deduction below names the file or setting it came from.
Instructions 2/27 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
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 6/14 C
Whether an agent can install the project and get it running without a human.
✗Deterministic install
0/6
No lockfile. An agent installing dependencies may not get what CI got.
Commit the lockfile your package manager generates. Without it, an agent's install and your install are different builds, and 'works on my machine' becomes unfalsifiable.
✓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
0/2
No pinned runtime version.
Add a .nvmrc, .python-version, or equivalent so the agent's toolchain matches yours.
–Reproducible environment
n/a
Not applicable — a library doesn't need a container to be worked on.
Verification loop 7/25 F
Whether an agent can check its own work. This is the category that most decides whether agent output is trustworthy.
✗Tests exist
4/8
333 test files against 43125 source files.
Coverage is thin enough that an agent can break real behavior and still see green.
e.g. Documentation/PCI/endpoint/function/binding/pci-test.rst, Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v1/memcg_test.rst, Documentation/arch/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec.rst
✗Test command is discoverable
0/7
There's no obvious way to run the tests. Even if tests exist, an agent won't reliably find the entry point.
Add a `test` script or a `test` target that runs the whole suite with no arguments. The convention is the interface — an agent tries `npm test` and `make test` before it tries reading your CI config.
✗Continuous integration
0/4
No CI config. Nothing outside a developer's laptop enforces correctness.
A CI workflow doubles as machine-readable documentation: it's the one file that states, unambiguously, the exact commands that must succeed.
✓Lint and format rules
3/3
.clippy.toml encodes the house style.
✗Static type checking
0/3
No static type checking.
A type checker gives an agent an error message instead of a runtime surprise. It's the second-fastest feedback loop after the compiler.
Context economy 9/20 C
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 119 patterns.
✗File sizes fit in context
0/6
971 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.
drivers/gpu/drm/amd/include/asic_reg/dcn/dcn_3_2_0_sh_mask.h — 23446KB
drivers/gpu/drm/amd/include/asic_reg/nbio/nbio_7_7_0_sh_mask.h — 16338KB
drivers/gpu/drm/amd/include/asic_reg/nbio/nbio_7_2_0_sh_mask.h — 16029KB
✗Repository weight
0/5
About 6352MB 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.
File tree exceeded GitHub's limit, so 71,654 entries were sampled
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.
undefined
Open the raw markdown
or
curl -o AGENTS.md agentreadme.com/draft/torvalds/linux.md
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[](https://agentreadme.com/torvalds/linux)Other C repositories, marked
This repository is large enough that GitHub truncated the file listing, so the file-level checks ran on a sample.