I hit this last week while working inside my own OpenClaw workspace: the agent had access to the right files, the right tools, and the right project context, but the useful behavior didn't come from any one magic prompt. It came from a small stack of durable instructions. The root AGENTS.
Source: [Dev.to](https://dev.to/bengreenberg/what-a-good-agentsmd-should-teach-an-agent-on-day-one-3nen)