Under the hood
The claudeMd block is now always included in what's sent to the model, even when there's no content
What
When assembling project context to send to the model, Claude Code now always includes a claudeMd block, defaulting to an empty string if there's nothing to put in it. Previously this block was only included when there was actual CLAUDE.md content, or when a particular internal setting was enabled.
Why
This makes the shape of the assembled project context consistent regardless of whether CLAUDE.md content exists, rather than varying based on content or configuration.
Names in the bundleCLAUDE.md
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added since
A small documentation edit on How Claude Code works touched a line naming CLAUDE.md after this was published.
* `/init` generates a starter CLAUDE.md for your projecthow-claude-code-works see the edit
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up CLAUDE.md, on Explore the .claude directory.
| `CLAUDE.local.md` | Project root | Your private preferences for this project, loaded alongside CLAUDE.md. Create it manually and add it to `.gitignore`. |claude-directory see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up CLAUDE.md, on Explore the .claude directory.