Amp vs Jules | agentconfig.ing

Amp vs JulesComparisonUpdated 2026-03-16

SUMMARY

Amp (CLI) uses markdown configuration while Jules (Agent) uses markdown. They differ on 2 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Amp	Jules	Notes
Config format	markdown	markdown
Hierarchy support	✓	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✓	✗	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✓	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	✗
IDE integration	CLI	Agent
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

FILE MAPPING

Purpose	Amp	Jules
Project instructions	AGENTS.md	AGENTS.md
Settings / configuration	settings.json	.gemini/settings.json

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Amp

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Agent Instructions

## Project Context
Go microservices monorepo using Bazel for builds.

## Build & Test
- Build all: bazel build //...
- Test all: bazel test //...
- Integration tests: docker compose up -d && bazel test //integration/...
- Lint: golangci-lint run ./...

## Code Conventions
- All services follow standard layout in /cmd and /internal
- Use structured logging with slog
- Error wrapping with fmt.Errorf("op: %w", err)
- See @docs/api-style-guide.md for API conventions

## Cross-Repo References
- Shared proto definitions in sourcegraph/proto
- Common Go libraries in sourcegraph/lib

## Security
- Never log sensitive data (tokens, passwords, PII)
- All external inputs must be validated
- Use parameterized queries for database access

Jules

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Agent Instructions

## Project
A Django REST API serving a React frontend.

## Setup
- Python 3.12 with Poetry
- PostgreSQL 15
- Redis for caching and Celery broker

## Key Commands
- poetry run python manage.py runserver
- poetry run pytest
- poetry run mypy .

## Pull Request Guidelines
- Keep PRs focused on a single issue
- Add tests for all new functionality
- Update API docs in docs/api/ if endpoints change
- Run the linter: poetry run ruff check .

## Architecture Notes
- apps/core/ — shared models and utilities
- apps/api/v2/ — current API version
- apps/tasks/ — Celery background tasks

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Global config

Amp: Supported. Jules: Not supported.

2. IDE integration

Amp: CLI. Jules: Agent.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Amp, configure AGENTS.md. If you use Jules, configure AGENTS.md. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md