Mistral Vibe: Hierarchical AGENTS.md for User-Level and Project-Wide Agent Configuration
Mistral VibeMistral Vibe v2.5.0 expanded AGENTS.md support to span multiple levels of the file hierarchy, allowing developers to define persistent agent behavior at the user level (~/.vibe/AGENTS.md), at the workspace root, and within subfolders and parent directories. Previously AGENTS.md was only read from the project root; the new layered lookup means global developer preferences, project-wide constraints, and module-specific overrides can coexist and compose automatically.
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Mistral Vibe Gains Multi-Level AGENTS.md Configuration
Mistral Vibe v2.5.0 introduces hierarchical AGENTS.md support, a significant expansion of the configuration system that governs how agents behave within a project. Where previous versions only read an AGENTS.md file at the workspace root, the updated system now discovers and merges agent instructions across multiple levels of the file system.
How Hierarchical AGENTS.md Works
The updated configuration lookup follows a layered model:
~/.vibe/AGENTS.md— User-level instructions that apply to all Mistral Vibe sessions regardless of project.- Root
AGENTS.md— Project-level instructions, as before. - Subfolder
AGENTS.md— Module or component-level overrides. - Parent folder
AGENTS.md— Monorepo-level instructions that sit above multiple packages.
Instructions from each level compose together, with more specific (deeper) files able to override or supplement more general (higher) ones. This mirrors how dotfiles, .editorconfig, or .eslintrc hierarchies work.
Why This Matters
The previous single-root approach was a friction point for developers working across multiple projects with consistent personal preferences. Without user-level configuration, every new project clone required re-specifying the same agent constraints. The new ~/.vibe/AGENTS.md eliminates that overhead entirely.
For teams working in monorepos, parent-folder AGENTS.md means shared coding standards can be expressed once at the monorepo level and automatically applied to every contained package, while individual packages retain the ability to specialize or override through their own AGENTS.md files.
Part of a Broader Agent Configuration Maturation
This change follows Mistral Vibe's progressive expansion of its agent configuration surface: earlier releases added root-level AGENTS.md support, then improved tool permissions with glob-based allowlists, then introduced the ~/.vibe/ user directory for skills storage. Hierarchical AGENTS.md continues that trajectory.