What
Settings files can list environment variables for Claude Code to use. Environment variables are named values a program reads when it runs. If the environment Claude Code was launched from already sets the same variable, the launch value wins and the settings value is dropped. That has not changed.
What is new is that Claude Code now writes a warning to its log naming the variables that were dropped. The warning appears only when:
- The settings value differs from the value already set at launch
- That pairing of settings source and variable has not already been reported
Why
Before, a value in settings could be silently ignored, which made it hard to understand why a setting seemed to have no effect. The log now tells you, and it says so once per variable instead of repeating.