diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index afc9f1e..44c23c4 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -26,3 +26,6 @@ temp/worktrees
 # Sanctioned scratch locations - AGENTS.md requires both, trailing-slash form
 tmp/
 temp/
+
+# Machine-local agent instruction symlink (absolute path; never committed)
+.ores/
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7819c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<!-- BEGIN ores-agents-pointer: managed by ORESoftware/my-ai; edit there, not here -->
+
+## Canonical agent instructions
+
+Before doing anything else in this repository, also read:
+
+    .ores/agents/AGENTS.md
+
+That path is a symlink to `~/codes/oresoftware/my-ai/AGENTS.md`, whose canonical copy is
+<https://github.com/ORESoftware/my-ai/blob/main/AGENTS.md>.
+
+It exists at a fixed path *inside* the repository because some agents cannot walk up past
+the repository root, so machine-wide instructions one or more directories above are
+invisible to them. This pointer plus that path make the same file reachable from a working
+directory anywhere in the tree.
+
+The symlink is deliberately **not committed**: it names an absolute path that is only valid
+on a machine with `~/codes/oresoftware/my-ai` checked out, so committing it would produce a
+broken link for everyone else and for CI. `.ores/` is git-ignored for that reason. If
+`.ores/agents/AGENTS.md` is missing on your machine, create it with:
+
+    mkdir -p .ores/agents
+    ln -sfn "$HOME/codes/oresoftware/my-ai/AGENTS.md" .ores/agents/AGENTS.md
+
+or run `~/codes/oresoftware/my-ai/scripts/link-repo-agents.sh` once to do it for every git
+repository under `~/codes`, and `--check` to verify them.
+
+A missing `.ores/agents/AGENTS.md` is a setup gap on the reader's machine, never a reason to
+skip the canonical instructions: fetch them from the URL above instead.
+
+<!-- END ores-agents-pointer -->