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Documents authored by Zhang, Jie M.

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Emerging Results, Vision & Reflection Track Paper
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESEM.2026.54
An Exploratory Study of Agent Plans for Agentic AI Coding Tools in Open-Source Software

Authors: Muhammad Auwal Abubakar, Seyedmoein Mohsenimofidi, Jai Lal Lulla, Jie M. Zhang, Christoph Treude, Sebastian Baltes, and Matthias Galster

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 394, 20th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2026)

Abstract
Repository-level configuration artifacts allow developers to provide guidance for agentic AI coding tools, e.g., Claude Code, Gemini. Although prior research has examined repository-shared context files that capture project-level instructions and conventions (e.g., AGENTS.md files), little is known about more task-oriented artifacts such as Agent Plans. We present an exploratory study of Agent Plans in open-source software repositories, examining how plan files are preserved, which development activities they support, and what information they provide to guide agent execution. We screened 36,710 GitHub repositories belonging to engineered software projects and identified 85 Markdown plan files from 10 repositories. Within this concentrated corpus, Agent Plans supported several kinds of software engineering work, including maintenance, design, construction, quality-related work, and process support. They also provided task-oriented execution guidance, most commonly through implementation steps, concrete files and locations, and testing and validation information. Overall, repository-preserved Agent Plans in these tool-specific directories appear to be a narrow but informative artifact for studying task intent and execution guidance in human-agent workflows.
Cite as

Muhammad Auwal Abubakar, Seyedmoein Mohsenimofidi, Jai Lal Lulla, Jie M. Zhang, Christoph Treude, Sebastian Baltes, and Matthias Galster. An Exploratory Study of Agent Plans for Agentic AI Coding Tools in Open-Source Software. In 20th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 394, pp. 54:1-54:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{abubakar_et_al:LIPIcs.ESEM.2026.54,
  author =	{Abubakar, Muhammad Auwal and Mohsenimofidi, Seyedmoein and Lulla, Jai Lal and Zhang, Jie M. and Treude, Christoph and Baltes, Sebastian and Galster, Matthias},
  title =	{{An Exploratory Study of Agent Plans for Agentic AI Coding Tools in Open-Source Software}},
  booktitle =	{20th International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2026)},
  pages =	{54:1--54:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-450-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{394},
  editor =	{Feldt, Robert and Paasivaara, Maria and Mendez, Daniel and Wagner, Stefan and Bar\'{o}n, Marvin Mu\~{n}oz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESEM.2026.54},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-280222},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESEM.2026.54},
  annote =	{Keywords: Agentic AI Coding Tools, Configuration Mechanisms, Plans}
}

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