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Instruction-file loading was renamed to instructionFiles, gained new modes with AGENTS.md fallback as default, and now reports plugin instruction stats
What
- The setting is renamed from
projectInstructionstoinstructionFiles; the old name still works as a deprecated alias but logs a one-time warning telling you to migrate. - The recognized modes changed from
claude,agents-fallback,both,nonetoclaude-md,claude-md-or-agents-md,claude-md-and-agents-md,managed-only. - The default mode is now
claude-md-or-agents-md, so a project with no CLAUDE.md of its own now automatically gets its AGENTS.md files loaded instead, without needing to turn anything on. - New telemetry events (
agents_md_load,agents_md_nested) record file count, import count, total content length, and whether the file walk succeeded or failed, tagged by the resolved mode. - Project context-loading results now always include a
pluginInstructionFilesfield (withfileCountandtotalContentLength) alongside the existingclaudeMd,instructionFiles, andmemoryFilesfields.
Why
This clarifies and simplifies how Claude Code decides which project instruction files (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md) to load, makes AGENTS.md usable out of the box for projects that don't have their own CLAUDE.md, and gives better visibility into which instruction files, including ones contributed by plugins, actually got loaded.
Names in the bundleclaude-mdclaude-md-or-agents-mdclaude-md-and-agents-mdmanaged-only
Documented inclaude-code/admin-setup
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 Extend Claude Code touched a line naming claude-md after this was published.
* **CLAUDE.md files** are additive: all levels contribute content to Claude's context simultaneously. Files from your working directory and above load at launch; subdirectories load as you work in them. When instructions conflict, Claude u…features-overview see the edit
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up claude-md, on Use Claude Code in VS Code.
* Select **Instructions** in the Customize section to edit the [CLAUDE.md files](/docs/en/memory#claude-md-files) Claude reads. Pick a file to open it in the editor. If the file doesn't exist yet, Claude Code creates it first. Requires Cla…vs-code see the edit
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubt
The finding doesn't say what happens if an old value like "claude" is still set, or how the new values map one-to-one onto the old behavior.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up claude-md, on Use Claude Code in VS Code.