I still find it valuable.

AGENTS.md is for top-priority rules and to mitigate mistakes that it makes frequently.

For example:

- Read `docs/CodeStyle.md` before writing or reviewing code

- Ignore all directories named `_archive` and their contents

- Documentation hub: `docs/README.md`

- Ask for clarifications whenever needed

I think what that "latest research" was saying is essentially don't have them create documents of stuff it can already automatically discover. For example the product of `/init` is completely derived from what is already there.

There is some value in repetition though. If I want to decrease token usage due to the same project exploration that happens in every new session, I use the doc hub pattern for more efficient progressive discovery.