carbon-lang/AGENTS.md

Gemini & AI assistant guide for Carbon

This document provides high-density technical context for AI assistants (and humans!) contributing to the Carbon Language project. If you are an AI assistant, read this first to avoid common pitfalls.

Table of contents

• General instructions
• Project structure
• Bazel usage
• Toolchain development

General instructions

• Communication: Be concise, professional, and technical. Use GitHub-style markdown.
• Verification: Always run relevant tests.
• Tool usage: Use web search for any research outside the immediate codebase or KIs.

Project structure

• common/: Common C++ utilities used across the project.
• core/: The Carbon standard library (Core).
• docs/: Project documentation, design, and style guides.
• examples/: Example Carbon programs and code snippets.
• proposals/: Evolution proposals.
• testing/: Testing utilities and infrastructure.
• toolchain/: The C++ implementation of the compiler (Toolchain).

Tool usage

See the "Tool usage" skill for instructions on what tools to use in the carbon-lang project.

Bazel usage

[!IMPORTANT] Always use bazelisk instead of bazel for all commands in the Carbon project. Refer to the Bazel usage skill for detailed instructions.

Code style

See the "Code style" skill for instructions on formatting, style guides, and code conventions to follow.

Toolchain development

See the "Toolchain Development" skill for instructions on architecture, building, testing, debugging, C++ patterns, and common pitfalls.