AGENTS.md is a project instruction file that gives AI coding agents task context, workflow rules, and constraints so agent behavior aligns with team standards.

Agent Skills are modular capability definitions that package domain-specific guidance, tools, and patterns for recurring agent tasks.

Hooks are automation points tied to lifecycle events that let teams enforce checks, trigger scripts, or modify behavior around agent actions.

Approval Modes are policy settings that control which operations an agent can run automatically and which require explicit human approval.

Automations are recurring or event-based executions that let AI agents perform routine work automatically under predefined instructions.

A System Prompt is a top-level instruction layer that sets goals, boundaries, and response style before user messages are processed.