How Claude remembers your project changedmemory
Nearest release: v2.1.238, published 10 hours before this site recorded the change. Shown because the two are within 24 hours of each other. Nothing here says the release caused the edit.
Recorded here
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First seen
14 Aug 2026
this site's first read of the page
Recorded edits43to this page, all time
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115115<Warning>
116116 An import in a project-level memory file is external when its path resolves outside your working directory, like the home directory import above. The first time Claude Code encounters external imports in a project, it shows an approval dialog listing the files. If you decline, the imports stay disabled and the dialog doesn't appear again.
117117
118 The dialog protects you from files other people commit to a shared project. Imports in user-scope memory files, such as `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and `~/.claude/rules/`, are files you wrote yourself, so they load without the dialog and carry the same trust as the rest of your personal configuration.
119</Warning>
118 Claude Code shows the dialog to protect you from files other people commit to a shared project. User-scope memory files, such as `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and `~/.claude/rules/`, are files you wrote yourself. Except in [Cowork](https://claude.com/product/cowork) sessions on your desktop, Claude Code loads their imports without the dialog and trusts them like the rest of your personal configuration.
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121For a more structured approach to organizing instructions, see [`.claude/rules/`](#organize-rules-with-claude/rules/).
120 In Cowork sessions on your desktop, Claude Code skips any import in a user-scope file that resolves to a path outside the session's working directory and loads the rest of the file. In those sessions it also skips a `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` that is itself a symlink or hard link, and a symlinked `~/.claude/rules/` directory or rule file that points outside the working directory.
121</Warning>
122122
123123### AGENTS.md
124124
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