--system-prompt
A Claude Code CLI flag, read out of the shipped bundle. No mined inventory carries it: everything below comes from what this site has written about it.
Replace the entire system prompt with custom text
Anthropic's own wording. Read off CLI reference, captured 2026-09-26.
In the changelogs
8Releases whose published page names --system-prompt.
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v2.1.283
--system-promptand--system-prompt-filecan now be used togetherPassing both
--system-promptand--system-prompt-fileno longer stops Claude Code from starting; the two are combinedfound in this entry's text
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v2.1.265
--system-prompt-snapshot now defaults on universally, not just for the built-in prompt
--system-prompt-snapshot's documented default is now described as always-on, not just for the built-in prompt
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.265
CLI option class renamed (q -> Y) and error class renamed (Ht -> It); no behavior change
Internal CLI option and error classes were renamed with no change in behavior
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.257
New
--system-prompt-snapshotCLI/agent optionA new --system-prompt-snapshot option makes a session record its system prompt once and reuse it on resume.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.248
Switching model over the SDK can also swap the system prompt
Over the SDK, set_model can also swap your custom system prompt from the next turn.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.242
Command-line system prompts kept separate from resolved ones
Your typed --system-prompt values are kept apart from the resolved ones for cloud and remote setup.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.98
--exclude-dynamic-system-prompt-sectionsCLI Flagfound in this entry's text
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v0.2.117
Enhanced Print Mode (
--print) 📄found in this entry's text
First cited
1The earliest release whose published evidence quoted --system-prompt was v2.1.248, 27 Aug 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
Presence across releases
0The miner has never read a build containing this name. It is here because a changelog entry of ours names it, which is evidence that it existed and not evidence of which releases carried it. The inventory starts at v2.1.138 and everything older than that was never mined.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the CLI flag does. All CLI flags.