GPT-6 Astra: Complete Codex Repository Instruction Audit Prompt

One-sentence conclusion

This complete prompt directs Codex to audit and streamline repository instructions according to the official Astra guide, while strictly limiting the scope of modifications to instruction files.

Applicable scenarios

• Suitable tasks: Upgrading the repository's AGENTS.md, verifying actual development commands, reducing unnecessary approval pauses, and clarifying completion criteria for implementation and bug-fix tasks.

• Unsuitable tasks: Migrating model APIs, modifying in-application prompts, changing model IDs, optimizing application runtime performance, or automatically changing global configuration.

• Applicable model version: GPT-6 Astra; the prompt requires combining current official Codex documentation with Astra prompting guidance.

• Applicable client, agent, or API: Codex CLI with the OpenAI Docs Skill installed; for other clients, replace the $openai-docs call with an equivalent method of accessing official documentation.

• Recommended reasoning effort and parameters: The original post does not disclose effort, a model snapshot, or API parameters.

Directly usable content

$openai-docs

Improve the instructions that govern how Codex CLI works in this repository, using current official Codex documentation and GPT-6 Astra prompting guidance.

The goal is better implementation quality, reliable follow-through, fewer unnecessary approval pauses, and efficient use of context and verification.

This is a Codex workflow improvement task. Do not migrate this application's API integrations, change its model IDs, modify application prompts, or optimize its runtime performance.

1. Inspect the existing setup.

Read the applicable AGENTS.md and AGENTS.override.md files, repository-local Codex configuration, and relevant installed skill instructions. Inspect the README, package manifests, workspace structure, and CI configuration to establish the actual development and verification commands.

Identify conflicting instructions, redundant guidance, outdated commands, unnecessary stopping points, and missing repository knowledge. Distinguish verified problems from preferences.

2. Apply focused improvements.

Update the effective repository-level AGENTS.md, creating it if needed. Update nested instruction files only where their scope requires it. Preserve valid project constraints and existing uncommitted work.

Keep the instructions concise and specific to this repository. Include:

• A compact map of the important code locations and architectural boundaries.

• The actual package manager and supported development commands.

• Relevant test, typecheck, lint, build, and runtime verification commands, including prerequisites.

• Expectations for following existing patterns and avoiding unrelated changes.

• Clear completion criteria for implementation and bug-fix tasks.

Incorporate the applicable official prompting guidance:

• Carry authorized implementation through the relevant verification.

• Resolve routine, reversible choices without repeatedly seeking confirmation.

• Ask focused questions when an unresolved decision materially affects correctness, scope, or authorization.

• Respect higher-priority instructions and permission boundaries; explain the exact source of a blocking instruction.

• Match verification to the change and required project gates; repeat checks when new evidence warrants it.

• Report the result, verification evidence, and concrete remaining limitations concisely.

Avoid copying entire prompting guides, adding motivational boilerplate, or duplicating instructions already supplied by the harness.

3. Keep changes within scope.

Only edit repository instruction files for this task. Inspect global instructions and installed skills as needed, but report conflicts there without modifying them. Recommend any Codex configuration changes separately, with their documented benefits and tradeoffs.

4. Verify and finish.

Review the resulting instruction hierarchy for contradictions and confirm documented commands against repository scripts and CI. Clearly distinguish commands you actually ran from commands you only inspected.

Apply the authorized instruction edits now. Finish with a concise explanation of what changed, why it should help, the official sources used, and any unresolved conflicts. Do not claim measured performance improvements without a comparison.

Usage and boundaries

1. First install or enable a Skill that can read official OpenAI documentation, then run the prompt from the target repository root.

2. Before committing, inspect the diff to confirm that only repository instruction files were modified and that application prompts, model configuration, and business code were not touched.

3. Run the minimum necessary verification identified by the prompt, distinguishing commands actually executed from commands only confirmed to exist in scripts.

4. The original post disclosed the complete input but not Astra's final output, modification diff, test results, or before-and-after comparison metrics. It is therefore a reproducible prompt, not a performance benchmark.