CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_CONFIG_MISSING_READ_GUARD
A Claude Code environment variable, read out of the shipped bundle. It was in the build from v2.1.317 and was gone by v2.1.318.
When Claude Code cannot find its config file, it now creates it without overwriting one that appears meanwhile, and saves onto it instead
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.317.
In the changelogs
3Releases whose published page names CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_CONFIG_MISSING_READ_GUARD.
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v2.1.318
Protection against losing
~/.claude.jsonnow applies to everyoneClaude Code now always guards your config file when it reads as missing, and
CLAUDE_CODE_CONFIG_LOCK_WAIT_MSsets how long some saves wait for the lockfound in this entry's text
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v2.1.317
Saving settings no longer overwrites a config file that could not be read
When Claude Code cannot find its config file, it now creates it without overwriting one that appears meanwhile, and saves onto it instead
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.317
Logout now reports failure if it cannot save the config file
/logoutandclaude auth logoutnow say so when they cannot save the config file, rather than always reporting successfound in this entry's text
First cited
1The earliest release whose published evidence quoted CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_CONFIG_MISSING_READ_GUARD was v2.1.317, 2 Nov 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
2Build by build
2One row per release since the first build this name was read out of. Absent means the build was read and the name was not in it, never mined means no bundle for that release was ever archived, and a declared type or a default is only ever what that release's own bundle stated.
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 environment variable does. All environment variables.