Which instruction files does your coding agent trust automatically, and how do you check them?

We covered this week how an AGENTS.md file dropped into a Downloads folder can steer Codex and Claude Code (see our article).

A practical question for people who run coding agents daily: which instruction and config files does your agent read automatically, and where from? Do you launch it only inside a repo you trust, run it in a container or sandbox, or review every instruction file before starting?

If you have a setup that works (a wrapper script, a checklist, a permission profile), share what it looks like and what it does not protect against.

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