diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 3d56da74..6a28e343 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -1167,6 +1167,11 @@ file) and `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` (a symlink to it), so Codex and Claude Code read
 - **Create only.** If either path exists (a file, a symlink, a dangling one) the account is left as it is:
   nothing is overwritten, appended to or re-linked. The file is seeded once, not managed, so editing
   `scripts/user-agents.md` reaches new accounts only; an existing account is changed by its owner.
+- **Personal additions go in `~/.claude/local.md`.** The text ends by importing it (`@~/.claude/local.md`, plus a
+  sentence telling Codex, which does not follow imports, to read it if it exists), the same name the distributed
+  accounts use (`agent-local-md.tf`). What one person's account needs (the machines it reaches, its projects,
+  preferences) goes there, never into this shared text or a repository. An account seeded before the import was
+  added gets it only by adding those lines itself: the seeder never appends.
 - **As the account, never as root.** Root only dispatches (`runuser`); the files are created by the account
   that owns them.
 - **No box is replaced or rebooted for it.** It is published inside the S3 setup scripts, and every instance
diff --git a/scripts/test-user-agents.py b/scripts/test-user-agents.py
index cc932901..ac2deed4 100644
--- a/scripts/test-user-agents.py
+++ b/scripts/test-user-agents.py
@@ -136,7 +136,12 @@ def test_the_file_is_a_title_the_session_values_paragraph_and_the_models_section
         self.assertTrue(lines[2].endswith("before every push."))
         # The owner, 2026-10-10: every account is told which cheaper models exist and when to hand them work.
         self.assertEqual(lines[4], "## Cheaper models for straightforward work")
-        self.assertEqual([l for l in lines if l.startswith("#")], [lines[0], lines[4]], "one title, one section")
+        # The owner, 2026-10-27: every account also imports its own ~/.claude/local.md, the same name the
+        # distributed accounts use, so what is personal stays out of this shared text.
+        own = "## This account's own instructions"
+        self.assertEqual([l for l in lines if l.startswith("#")], [lines[0], lines[4], own], "one title, two sections")
+        self.assertIn("\n@~/.claude/local.md\n", text)
+        self.assertIn("Codex does not follow the `@` import above", text)
         for model in ("`haiku`", "`sonnet`", "Opus 5.5"):
             self.assertIn(model, text)
         # Subagents only ever go down a model: a Sonnet session must not start an Opus subagent (owner, 2026-10-10).
diff --git a/scripts/user-agents.md b/scripts/user-agents.md
index 70ca5312..778d7589 100644
--- a/scripts/user-agents.md
+++ b/scripts/user-agents.md
@@ -29,3 +29,11 @@ How to use them:
 - One task per subagent. Check what it did yourself (run the tests, read the diff) before relying on it.
 - If a subagent gets it wrong once, do that piece in the main session instead; do not retry the same model.
 - Never hand a cheaper model an action that cannot be undone: a deploy, a delete, a push to main, a credential.
+
+## This account's own instructions
+
+@~/.claude/local.md
+
+Codex does not follow the `@` import above: if `~/.claude/local.md` exists, read it too. It holds this account's own
+instructions (the machines it can reach, its projects, what its person prefers), kept out of this shared starter text
+and out of every repository.