# Padding

Extra instructions that cost and do not help.

**Is a:** [Failure kind](/reference/ontology/unattended-agent-failures/failure-kind)

**Guarded by:** [Leave out repository overviews](/reference/ontology/unattended-agent-failures/leave-out-repository-overviews)

Extra instructions that cost and do not help. Across four coding agents, repository context files raised cost by over 20 percent without improving success ([Evaluating AGENTS.md](https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11988)).

Guard: [leaving out repository overviews](/reference/ontology/unattended-agent-failures/leave-out-repository-overviews).

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Published 2026-10-29. Web page: https://www.mackenziebowes.com/reference/ontology/unattended-agent-failures/padding