Unclear It is not clear what Claude Code does with files it treats as placeholders, so the effect on your files is unknown.
What
Claude Code checks whether a file is an empty, read-only placeholder. That check now has one more condition: only one name may point to the file. A hard link is a second name for the same file on disk, and an empty file that has one or more of them no longer counts as a placeholder.
Why
The check is narrower now, so fewer files match it.
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubt
It is not clear what Claude Code does with files it treats as placeholders, so the effect on your files is unknown.