← Agents in Practice
GUIDE B
Try It: Folder Context and a Website
Context files · Git · GitHub Pages · for designers and students
LengthAn afternoon, once
NeedsAny coding agent
HostingGitHub Pages (free)
What you will be able to do
  • Have an agent write and maintain the context file for a project folder, and review it
  • Publish a personal, studio or firm website from a folder, and keep it up to date by asking
You don’t need to remember any of this. Install Git and an agent, then ask it: “Walk me through connecting you to my GitHub account and publishing a website with GitHub Pages, one step at a time, and check each step before the next.” The steps below are the reference for what it will walk you through.
The same goes for the context file. You rarely write it yourself. You talk; the agent writes it down; you review it and ask for audits.
Part 1 Set up, once
01 The Idea, in Two Pictures Read first
Git keeps dated revisions of a folder on your computer, like a drawing set’s revision history. GitHub is the shared plan room online. GitHub Pages turns what is in the plan room into a public website. You do the steps in the tinted boxes, because they involve your accounts. The agent does the rest.
Gitrevisions, on your computerGitHubshared plan room, onlineGitHub Pagesyour public websiteYOUAGENT01Install Git+ your agentone-time download02GitHubaccountturn on two-factor03Organizationfor a shared site04Sign inthis computernormal terminal05Createthe repothe online folder06Uploadthe foldera dated version07Turn onPageslive in a minute08Own domainoptionalStuck at any step? Paste the error to the agent and ask it to walk you through.
EVERY DAYYou ask“Add the Riversideproject.”Agent editsand previews, followingAGENTS.mdYou reviewapprove it,or correct itAgent publishesthe site updatesin a minutenext changeCorrect the same thing twice? Ask the agent to write the rule into AGENTS.md.The daily loop is where the context file grows.
02 Your Accounts SETUP
  • Install Git from git-scm.com with all the default options. On Windows your agent needs it to run; on a Mac, typing git --version in Terminal offers to install it.
  • Install your agent. Any of them works for this guide.
  • Make a GitHub account at github.com. The username appears in your web address, so choose it with care.
  • Turn on two-factor authentication: Settings → Password and authentication. Save the recovery codes somewhere safe, such as a password manager.
  • For a shared site (a firm, a studio, a lab), create an organization: profile picture → Your organizations → New organization → Free. Repos then belong to the group, not to one person. A personal site skips this.
03 Sign In This Computer SETUP
Ask the agent to install the GitHub command-line tool. Then open a normal PowerShell or Terminal window, not one inside the agent’s app, and run:
gh auth login
Choose GitHub.com, HTTPS, and log in with a web browser. Paste the one-time code, approve, and click Grant next to your organization if it is listed. Wait for ✓ Logged in as ….
This is the one step the agent cannot do for you: the approval happens in your browser, on your account. The sign-in is saved for your whole computer, so the agent can use it from then on.
Part 2 The context file
C1 Let the Agent Write It
Make a folder for the project and put your raw material in a _source folder inside it: photos, a paragraph about you or your practice, anything the site should draw on. Open the agent in that folder and ask:
Interview me about this project, one question at a time: who we are, what the site is for, which pages it needs, how the folders are organized, and any rules. Then write an AGENTS.md at the root of this folder. Keep it under 40 lines and show it to me before you build anything.
Read it and correct it in words. The file is yours; the agent is the one typing.
  • What belongs in it: what the agent cannot work out by reading the files. Purpose, folder map, rules, decisions you have made.
  • Some tools read a differently named file, such as CLAUDE.md. Ask your agent which one it loads.
✓
Check. Close the session, open a new one in the same folder, and ask: “What is this project, how is it organized, and what’s left to do?” If the answer is wrong, fix the file, not the conversation.
C2 Run a Task, Record the Corrections
Give it real work:
Following AGENTS.md, resize the photos in _source for the web and build the home page and one project page. Open a preview.
Correct it in plain words: a bigger header, a quieter color. When you settle something you want kept, send it to the file:
Add that to AGENTS.md.
If you correct the same thing twice, it belongs in the file. The next session will not remember the conversation; it will read the file.
C3 Ask for an Audit
Every line of the file loads into every session, so a long file costs attention and tokens every time. Every few weeks, ask:
Audit every AGENTS.md in this folder. Cut anything you could learn by reading the files. Make sure each fact is written once and everything else points to it. Name the original file for anything that gets built. Phrase every rule as what to do. Flag facts that look stale. List your changes and how many lines they save, and change nothing until I approve.
Review its cuts before you accept them. An audit that removes a rule you rely on is the one to catch.
Part 3 Publish and keep it current
04 Create the Repo, Turn On Pages
Ask:
Create a public repo called website in my GitHub account (or in our organization), keep _source out of it, push this folder, turn on GitHub Pages from the main branch, and give me the link.
The site is live within a minute or two, at yourname.github.io/website or orgname.github.io/website.
A public repo shows every file in it. Keep client material and anything confidential out of the folder you publish; the _source exclusion is there for that.
05 Your Own Domain (Optional)
Ask the agent to set up your domain. It adds the file GitHub needs and tells you which DNS records to enter at your registrar. You enter them; then tick Enforce HTTPS in the repo’s Pages settings once GitHub offers it, which can take up to a day.
06 Every Day
Open the agent in the folder and ask for the change: a new project, an updated bio, a new menu item on every page. Review what changed. Ask it to publish. That is the whole routine.
Where the Agent Looks
Context files stack. Most agents read one in your user folder (for things true in every project), one at the project root, and deeper ones when they start working in a subfolder. Keep each short and let the top ones point down, the way a drawing index points to the one sheet you need.
Agents in PracticeGUIDE B