--- title: AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals | daily.dev description: Vercel tested two approaches for teaching AI coding agents about Next.js 16 APIs: skills (on-demand retrieval) and AGENTS.md (passive context). An 8KB... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amj6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals | daily.dev og:description: Vercel tested two approaches for teaching AI coding agents about Next.js 16 APIs: skills (on-demand retrieval) and AGENTS.md (passive context). An 8KB... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amj6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8jn36amJ6.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals **[NextJS](https://daily.dev/sources/nextjs)** · [@capjavert](https://daily.dev/capjavert) · 98 upvotes · 6 comments ## Summary Vercel tested two approaches for teaching AI coding agents about Next.js 16 APIs: skills (on-demand retrieval) and AGENTS.md (passive context). An 8KB compressed docs index in AGENTS.md achieved 100% pass rate on evals, while skills maxed at 79% even with explicit instructions. Skills weren't reliably triggered (56% never invoked without instructions), and instruction wording proved fragile. The passive context approach eliminates decision points, provides consistent availability, and avoids ordering issues. A codemod command automatically sets up version-matched Next.js documentation for projects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@petecapecod** · 2 upvotes > Good read very interesting 🤔 > > I was just getting my skills usage into play, been spending most my time on `AGENTS.md` > > Good stuff to know about it. **@yaireo** · 2 upvotes > yes this was already posted many days ago. I don't understand why to re-post endlessly. while it was a very good read, I am against spam. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#nextjs](https://daily.dev/tags/nextjs) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amj6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amj6","headline":"AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals","text":"Shared: AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amj6","datePublished":"2026-02-20T11:59:04.017Z","dateModified":"2026-02-20T11:59:04.039Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ante Barić","url":"https://daily.dev/capjavert","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1679300599/avatars/avatar_LJSkpBexOSCWc8INyu3Eu.jpg","description":"Developer, software tinkerer, trail runner and hobby artist. 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I don’t understand why to re-post endlessly. while it was a very good read, I am against spam.","datePublished":"2026-02-20T14:06:57.549Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/8jn36amJ6#c-P1J7Q9jgU","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/nextjs","name":"NextJS"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NextJS","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/nextjs"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"AGENTS.md outperforms skills in our agent evals"}]} ```