> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.modular.com/llms.txt).
> Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any URL (e.g. /max/get-started.md).

# Using AI coding assistants

This page describes how you can accelerate your MAX development with
popular AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf,
and others). Mojo language documentation is hosted separately at
[mojolang.org](https://mojolang.org); use
[mojolang.org/llms.txt](https://mojolang.org/llms.txt) for Mojo-specific AI
context. This page covers resources available on docs.modular.com:

- **Documentation files** (`llms.txt`): Raw text files that AI tools use for
website navigation hints and direct access to up-to-date API documentation.

- **Project context files** (`CLAUDE.md` and `AGENTS.md`): Markdown files in
  your
project that provide AI assistants with build commands, coding conventions,
and project structure.

- **Cursor project rules** (`.cursor/rules/`): Modular-specific rules that
activate based on the files you're editing, providing consistent guidance for
MAX development (and Mojo when using rules from the Modular repository).

## Giving our docs to your AI assistant

To improve code quality and accuracy from your AI assistant, add Modular's
documentation to your AI tool's context. We provide different `llms.txt` files
that are optimized for different use cases:

- <a href="/llms.txt"><code>llms.txt</code></a> for a compact index with links
  to section-specific files
- <a href="/llms-max-guides.txt"><code>llms-max-guides.txt</code></a> for MAX
  development, deployment, and inference guides
- <a href="/llms-python.txt"><code>llms-python.txt</code></a> for MAX Python
  APIs, pipelines, or graph construction
- <a href="/llms-kernels.txt"><code>llms-kernels.txt</code></a> for MAX AI
  kernels API reference (top-level package indexes)
- <a href="/llms-c-api.txt"><code>llms-c-api.txt</code></a> for MAX C API
  reference
- <a href="/llms-glossary.txt"><code>llms-glossary.txt</code></a> for glossary
  terms
- <a href="https://mojolang.org/llms.txt"><code>mojolang.org/llms.txt</code></a>
  for Mojo language documentation (hosted on
  [mojolang.org](https://mojolang.org), not docs.modular.com)

If you're in Cursor, use the `@` syntax in the chat window to reference
documentation directly. For example, to insert the MAX Python API documentation,
add this to your chat:

```text
@docs.modular.com/llms-python.txt
```

:::tip Cursor tip

To make the docs a permanent knowledge resource, type `@docs.new` in the chat
and hit <kbd>Enter</kbd> (select **Add new doc**), then paste the `llms.txt`
URL such as `docs.modular.com/llms-python.txt`. Edit the name and click
**Confirm**. Read more about the [Cursor @Docs
command](https://cursor.com/docs/context/mentions#docs).

:::

For all other tools (Claude Code, Copilot, Windsurf, and others), just
tell the AI to fetch the documentation:

```text
Read https://docs.modular.com/llms-python.txt for MAX Python API documentation
```

For more details, see the section below about [our `llms.txt`
files](#modular-llmstxt-files).

## Working in the Modular repository

When you clone the [Modular repo](https://github.com/modular/modular),
your AI tool will automatically discover project context (either `CLAUDE.md` or
`AGENTS.md`) files that provide:

- Build and test commands
- Project architecture overview
- Coding conventions and commit message guidelines
- Common development workflows

Different tools look for different files (either `CLAUDE.md` or `AGENTS.md`,
which are identical)—for compatibility details, see the section below about
[Modular context files](#modular-context-files).

**Cursor users**: The repository also includes project rules in `.cursor/rules/`
that activate based on the files you're editing. These rules provide
file-specific guidance for Mojo and MAX development. See
[Modular Cursor rules](#modular-cursor-rules) for the full list.

## Starting a new project

For your own MAX projects, the entirety of our
[`CLAUDE.md`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/CLAUDE.md) and
[`AGENTS.md`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/AGENTS.md)
files are probably not useful for your own projects because they're specific to
the Modular repository.

However, you might find some parts useful, such as the section about
[Critical development notes](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/CLAUDE.md#critical-development-notes),
which you can copy to your own `CLAUDE.md` or `AGENTS.md` file.

**Cursor users**: You also might want to copy the [Modular Cursor
rules](#modular-cursor-rules) below to your `.cursor/rules/` directory.

## Resources for AI assistants

Here are all the resources we provide for AI assistants.

### Modular `llms.txt` files

Our documentation supports the [llms.txt](https://llmstxt.org/) proposed
standard, providing LLM-friendly documentation files:

| File                                                                              | Description                            | Best for                      |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| <a href="/llms.txt" target="_blank">llms.txt</a>                                  | Compact index linking to segment files | Starting point for all agents |
| <a href="/llms-max-guides.txt" target="_blank">llms-max-guides.txt</a>            | MAX guides (develop, serve, deploy)    | Application development       |
| <a href="/llms-python.txt" target="_blank">llms-python.txt</a>                    | MAX Python API indexes                 | Python-based MAX development  |
| <a href="/llms-kernels.txt" target="_blank">llms-kernels.txt</a>                  | MAX AI kernels API (package indexes)   | Kernel and GPU development    |
| <a href="/llms-c-api.txt" target="_blank">llms-c-api.txt</a>                      | MAX C API reference                    | C API integration             |
| <a href="/llms-glossary.txt" target="_blank">llms-glossary.txt</a>                | Glossary terms (full content)          | Terminology lookup            |
| <a href="https://mojolang.org/llms.txt" target="_blank">mojolang.org/llms.txt</a> | Mojo language docs (external)          | Mojo development              |

### Modular Cursor rules

Copy these rules to your `.cursor/rules/` directory for consistent AI
assistance with Mojo and MAX development:

- **[`general_behavior_rules.mdc`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/.cursor/rules/general_behavior_rules.mdc)**:
General rules for code creation. Emphasizes simplicity, thorough investigation,
using existing solutions, descriptive naming, robust error handling, and
documentation.

- **[`git.mdc`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/.cursor/rules/git.mdc)**:
Best practices for Git including code organization, commit strategies,
branching models, and collaborative workflows.

- **[`max_development.mdc`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/.cursor/rules/max_development.mdc)**:
Guidelines for MAX development covering project context, task execution, code
quality, testing practices, and documentation.

- **[`mojo.mdc`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/.cursor/rules/mojo.mdc)**:
Mojo coding standards, performance optimizations, and best practices for
GPU-accelerated code.

### Modular context files

Project context files (`CLAUDE.md` and `AGENTS.md`) provide AI coding
assistants with essential project information, such as:

- Build and test commands
- Project architecture overview
- Coding conventions and commit message guidelines
- Common development workflows

Although `CLAUDE.md` is primarily used for Claude Code, some other AI tools
also read it, but perhaps not by default when working in the repository—you
might need to explicitly tell your AI to read it.

The [`AGENTS.md` filename](https://agents.md/) is a more generic name that
other coding assistants have adopted.

To ensure compatibility with other tools, we provide both `CLAUDE.md` and
`AGENTS.md` files—our
[`AGENTS.md`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/AGENTS.md) file is
just a symlink to the
[`CLAUDE.md`](https://github.com/modular/modular/blob/main/CLAUDE.md) file.