How Claude remembers your project changedmemory
Nearest release: v2.1.240, published 3 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
Lines+0added
Lines−2removed
From line
396
where the diff opens
First seen
14 Aug 2026
this site's first read of the page
Recorded edits44to this page, all time
The whole hunk
from line 396, old and new numbered
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from line 396
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397397After Claude writes to `MEMORY.md`, Claude Code measures the file against the 200-line and 25KB read limits. If the file is near a limit, Claude Code reminds Claude to shorten it: keep one line per entry, move detail into topic files, and merge or drop stale entries. If the file is over a limit, the write still succeeds, but Claude Code returns an [error telling Claude to rewrite the index](/docs/en/errors#memory-index-is-over-its-read-limit), because everything past the limit is dropped on the next load.
398398
399The check measures only the content that loads: YAML frontmatter and block-level HTML comments are stripped before the index is loaded, so they don't count toward the limits. Before v2.1.211, Claude Code measured the raw file, and frontmatter or comments could trigger the error even when the loaded content fit.
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401399This limit applies only to `MEMORY.md`. Claude Code loads a CLAUDE.md file of up to 4 MiB in full and skips a larger file. Shorter files produce better adherence.
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403401Claude Code doesn't load topic files such as `user_role.md` or `feedback_testing.md` at startup. Claude reads them on demand using its standard file tools when it needs the information.
No line in this hunk matches that.