GIT_DIR
A Claude Code environment variable, read out of the shipped bundle. No mined inventory carries it: everything below comes from what this site has written about it.
Stray git environment variables in your shell can no longer misdirect worktree operations.
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.222.
In the changelogs
7Releases whose published page names GIT_DIR.
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v2.1.309
Worktree isolation checks variables set before git commands differently
The worktree guard now treats variable assignments placed before a git command differently, which appears to tighten what it allows
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.307
Safer copying of nested git repositories when comparing changes
When copying a git repository nested inside your project to compare changes, Claude Code now checks the copy harder and refuses mismatched work trees
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.275
Git-related environment variables and CLI flags now get pattern-matched for hardening
Claude Code now scans environment variables and git flags for tricks that redirect where git actually operates
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.239
Directory sync places files without following symlinks, and tells you when it can't
Cloud file sync writes through directory handles so a swapped symlink can't redirect it, and says when that's unavailable.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.234
Git subprocesses get a more thorough environment scrub
Your shell's git environment variables are scrubbed more thoroughly before Claude Code runs git.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.222
Worktree git commands run with a scrubbed git environment
Stray git environment variables in your shell can no longer misdirect worktree operations.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.222
Git invocations hardened with sanitized args and environment
Many more git commands now run with a scrubbed environment so stray variables can't redirect them.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
First cited
1The earliest release whose published evidence quoted GIT_DIR was v2.1.271, 14 Sep 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 environment variable does. All environment variables.