SQLite Publishes AGENTS.md: No Agentic Code Accepted. Full Stop.

SQLite, the most-deployed database in history, published a formal AGENTS.md file establishing rules for how AI agents interact with the project. The position is unambiguous: "SQLite does not accept agentic code." They recently removed the qualifier "(currently)" from that sentence in a commit message that read "Strengthen the statement about not accepting agentic code."

But the policy isn't a blanket rejection of AI. SQLite will accept agentic bug reports that include reproducible test cases, and human developers will review proof-of-concept patches before reimplementing independently. They've created a separate forum specifically for AI-generated bug reports, where maintainer D. Richard Hipp actively triages submissions.

I think this is a cultural inflection point. AGENTS.md is becoming the standard interface contract between open-source projects and AI agents, distinct from CLAUDE.md (which configures an agent's behavior). AGENTS.md defines what agents may and may not do with a project: submission rules, acceptable contribution types, quality gates. It's CONTRIBUTING.md for the AI age.

The SQLite decision makes sense for their specific context. Their codebase has extraordinary reliability requirements, with 100% branch coverage testing and a famously conservative development process. Accepting agentic code would mean trusting that AI-generated patches meet that bar, and right now they don't. The compromise, accepting AI-found bugs but reimplementing fixes by hand, is a pragmatic middle ground.

Every open-source maintainer should be paying attention. If you don't have an AGENTS.md, you're going to get flooded with AI-generated PRs of wildly varying quality. Write one now. Define what agents can submit, what format you expect, and what your review process looks like. Augment Code published a guide on building effective AGENTS.md files. The Karpathy-derived CLAUDE.md crossed 110K GitHub stars and spent 28 consecutive days atop GitHub Trending. The convention is forming fast.

What builders should do: Add an AGENTS.md to every project you maintain. Even if it's three lines saying "AI PRs welcome, must include tests, must pass CI." The absence of a policy is itself a policy, and it's the wrong one.