You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
PermissionsArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.284,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
.claude/rules is a project folder of instruction files that Claude Code loads alongside CLAUDE.md. A symlink is a shortcut that points to another location on disk.
If a project's .claude/rules is a symlink to somewhere outside the project, it is now skipped when external includes are off. The exception is a location inside a directory loaded through CLAUDE_CODE_ADDITIONAL_DIRECTORIES_CLAUDE_MD. It is also loaded if the project already has external includes approved (hasClaudeMdExternalIncludesApproved).
Before, only entries inside the rules folder were checked this way, not a symlinked rules folder itself.
Loaded rule files now record where they were linked from.
Loading from additional directories has been reorganised, with the same behaviour as before.
The warning about project memory importing files from outside the current folder now reads: 'This project's CLAUDE.md or .claude/rules imports files outside the current working directory. Never allow this for third-party repositories.'
Why
A repository could otherwise pull instructions into Claude from anywhere on your machine through a symlinked rules folder. That now needs the same approval as other outside imports, so be careful before allowing it for repositories you did not write.
How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtThe exact set of cases in which a symlinked rules folder is now skipped is not fully clear.
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed rules symlinked into .claude/rules from outside the project being skipped without ever showing the external-imports approval prompt; a…
