instructionFiles
A Claude Code settings key, read out of the shipped bundle. No mined inventory carries it: everything below comes from what this site has written about it.
A separate instruction-files context channel exists but is off by default, part of a static system prompt rework.
Not Anthropic's. This is the line from the earliest changelog entry here that named it, v2.1.252.
In the changelogs
7Releases whose published page names instructionFiles.
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v2.1.281
tengu_agents_md_mod default flipped on: AGENTS.md loading plugin
The AGENTS.md plugin's availability check now falls back to true, and the flag server reads it as on for this site's account
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
instructionFiles setting supersedes projectInstructions
New instructionFiles setting replaces projectInstructions, which is now a deprecated fallback
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
AGENTS.md fallback is now the default instruction-file mode
AGENTS.md now loads by default when a project has no CLAUDE.md, and the setting controlling it is renamed
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
Project context loading now also reports plugin instruction file stats
Project context loading now always reports plugin instruction file counts and total size
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.275
context_claude_md_load pipeline restructured around instructionFiles caching
Loading CLAUDE.md project context now reuses cached text when instruction files haven't changed
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.259
Prompt context blocks now pass through a resolver/invalidator pipeline before assembly
User context is assembled into named blocks and passed through a resolver that can rewrite it; by default it passes through untouched.
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.252
New "instructionFiles" context channel, gated behind carved-slate flag
A separate instruction-files context channel exists but is off by default, part of a static system prompt rework.
found in this entry's text
First cited
3The earliest release whose published evidence quoted instructionFiles was v2.1.252, 31 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 settings key does. All settings keys.