Installing software is a task which should be left to AI. Today we are proposing install.md to standardize how developers should write installation instructions for agents. It's currently live on all Mintlify sites including Cerebras, Firecrawl, and Langchain.
Proposal for a standard /install.md file that provides LLM-executable installation instructions.
Installing software is a task which should be left to AI. There's no reason for us humans to waste our time reading instructions and running commands.
Agents are growing in capability faster than software developers have been able to keep up. Product documentation today is focused on humans instead of AI which creates friction when trying to automate annoying yak-shaving style tasks like installation.
The difference is subtle. Agents need to have a task iterated to them like "I want you to install Mintlify CLI for me. Execute all the steps below autonomously." whereas humans just need the steps and can take action without prompting.
Today we are proposing install.md to standardize how developers should write installation instructions for agents. It's currently live on all Mintlify sites including Cerebras, Firecrawl, and Langchain.
Add an install.md markdown file to your project with LLM-executable installation instructions.
Users paste that file into an LLM or pipe it directly from a URL. The LLM reads the instructions, detects the environment, adapts to the setup, and executes—optionally with approval at every step. Because the file is human-readable, users see exactly what will happen before it runs.
Instead of piping an executable file into bash with absolutely zero safeguards on what gets executed or confidence that it will figure out how to work with your arch linux setup, you can instead send an install.md to claude and trust Opus to deal with the minutia for you.
curl -fsSL https://www.anaconda.com/docs/install.md | claude
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