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Claude Code v2.1.290 ·

CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and rules files outside your working folders can be withheld

When reads are restricted, instruction files that a Read deny rule covers or that lie outside your working folders are skipped, with the reason logged

Group of 2 Use it now Improvements
JSON All of v2.1.290
Use it nowTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
3Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
CLAUDE.mdArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.290,
What probably matters to youSection of the release

Unclear Whether the note about a skipped file is shown on screen or only written to the debug log is not settled.

What

Instruction files are files such as CLAUDE.md, CLAUDE.local.md, AGENTS.md and rules files that Claude Code loads to learn about your project. When file reads are restricted, or blockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories is set, Claude Code now checks each one before loading it:

  • A file covered by a Read deny rule, or one that resolves to a location outside your working folders, for example through a symbolic link (a shortcut to another place), is skipped. The log records why, starting with "Instruction file not loaded".
  • Claude Code also times how long the auto-memory index takes to load.
  • For hooks modules, $.fs.ancestors now accepts held and session options and treats AGENTS.md and .claude/AGENTS.md specially, applying the same outside-the-folder check.
  • When a plugin withholds the result of a call, the error now says whether the call had "started" or "ran" before the plugin withheld its result, instead of just $.<name>: <reason>.

Why

A CLAUDE.md that is symlinked from elsewhere or covered by a deny rule can now silently stop loading when reads are restricted. If Claude seems to ignore your instructions, check the log for "Instruction file not loaded". Plugin authors using hooks modules see the new AGENTS.md handling and clearer withheld-result errors.

Read from
Names in the bundleblockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories
Since it was published

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.

Confirmed since Anthropic's documentation has since written up blockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories, on Choose a permission mode. While [`permissions.blockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories`](/docs/en/settings-reference#permissions-blockreadsoutsideworkingdirectories) is off, file reads other than [reads from network paths](/docs/en/permissions#network-paths) run without… permission-modes see the edit
Added since A small documentation edit on Code in Claude Desktop on 3P touched a line naming blockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories after this was published. The network and filesystem sandboxes apply on macOS, and on Linux devices and [SSH hosts](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/ssh-remote-sessions#managed-configuration-on-the-remote-host) with Claude Code's [sandbox dependencies](https://code… third-party/claude-desktop/code see the edit
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 doubtWhether the note about a skipped file is shown on screen or only written to the debug log is not settled.
Anthropic's documentation agreesA small documentation edit on Code in Claude Desktop on 3P touched a line naming blockReadsOutsideWorkingDirectories after this was…
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed a project CLAUDE.md, rule or AGENTS.md symlinked outside the working directories loading under…

See this entry in the whole of v2.1.290 →

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