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My claude.md: # CLAUDE.md This project uses `AGENTS.md` as its agent instruction file (kept provider-agnostic). Treat any `AGENTS.md` file exactly as you woul

by dinga 15d ago

My claude.md: # CLAUDE.md This project uses `AGENTS.md` as its agent instruction file (kept provider-agnostic). Treat any `AGENTS.md` file exactly as you would a `CLAUDE.md` file — at the root level and in any subdirectory you are working in. @AGENTS.md

frizlab 15d ago
If only there was a technology that existed to link files together… /s
- gberger 15d ago
  You mean symbolically?
  - frizlab 15d ago
    Good one
- dinga 15d ago
  The idea was to have it automatically detect nested AGENTS.md Does your tech do that? Anyway, the joke is on me I guess, because it might not work reliably.
  - numpad0 15d ago
    On many filesystems, a lot of data about a file is not attached to the content of the file, but stored in a master filename and metadata table graph tree of some sort, and the address offset within that metadata used to retrieve the contents on disk can be a duplicate of another entry, without that situation instantly leading to a filesystem driver crash. Some filesystems officially support such duplicates as well as equivalents of HTTP 3xx, some you can just do as a matter of fact and fsck would have some words about it. Default filesystems for all Unix, Linux, WinNT, all do.
    - dinga 15d ago
      Yes. The thing is that creating a link will not do it recursively for all subdirectories. Even worse, in the subdirectories I didn't want to place a claude.md in the first place but just have agents.md. That was the idea.... For the toplevel it works because of the @AGENTS.md and this is also the part the link would solve. Thanks for all the great advice and explanations.
  - adastra22 15d ago
    CLAUDE.md is handled by the harness, not the agent.
    - dinga 15d ago
      I phrased it wrong. It was not about "automatically detect nested AGENTS.md". The idea was that when AGENTS.md files should be treated just like CLAUDE.md files in all subdirectories, when encountered. Anyway, with the change they announced, I can now simply delete my CLAUDE.md and everything will just work the way I wanted. Thanks for your clarification.
      - adastra22 15d ago
        What I meant is that the LLM isn’t the one that loads the agent file. It’s not trained to look for CLAUDE.md. It’s only training is to edit that file, and the harness does the magic of injecting it. So I would predict that with those instructions it rarely or only intermittently loaded AGENTS.md, but if you asked it to add a rule it would probably have put it on the right file.
Merad 14d ago
I don't think this will work reliably. Pretty sure it's not the LLM deciding to read the files, it's the harness in Claude Code itself injecting the instructions files based on the paths the model accesses. Edit: sometimes if Claude lists files in a directory or does a search that shows it an AGENTS.md exists it will decide to read it. But it's not a reliable behavior.

by dinga 15d ago

frizlab 15d ago

If only there was a technology that existed to link files together… /s

gberger 15d ago
You mean symbolically?
- frizlab 15d ago
  Good one
dinga 15d ago
The idea was to have it automatically detect nested AGENTS.md Does your tech do that? Anyway, the joke is on me I guess, because it might not work reliably.
- numpad0 15d ago
  On many filesystems, a lot of data about a file is not attached to the content of the file, but stored in a master filename and metadata table graph tree of some sort, and the address offset within that metadata used to retrieve the contents on disk can be a duplicate of another entry, without that situation instantly leading to a filesystem driver crash. Some filesystems officially support such duplicates as well as equivalents of HTTP 3xx, some you can just do as a matter of fact and fsck would have some words about it. Default filesystems for all Unix, Linux, WinNT, all do.
  - dinga 15d ago
    Yes. The thing is that creating a link will not do it recursively for all subdirectories. Even worse, in the subdirectories I didn't want to place a claude.md in the first place but just have agents.md. That was the idea.... For the toplevel it works because of the @AGENTS.md and this is also the part the link would solve. Thanks for all the great advice and explanations.
- adastra22 15d ago
  CLAUDE.md is handled by the harness, not the agent.
  - dinga 15d ago
    I phrased it wrong. It was not about "automatically detect nested AGENTS.md". The idea was that when AGENTS.md files should be treated just like CLAUDE.md files in all subdirectories, when encountered. Anyway, with the change they announced, I can now simply delete my CLAUDE.md and everything will just work the way I wanted. Thanks for your clarification.
    - adastra22 15d ago
      What I meant is that the LLM isn’t the one that loads the agent file. It’s not trained to look for CLAUDE.md. It’s only training is to edit that file, and the harness does the magic of injecting it. So I would predict that with those instructions it rarely or only intermittently loaded AGENTS.md, but if you asked it to add a rule it would probably have put it on the right file.

Merad 14d ago

I don't think this will work reliably. Pretty sure it's not the LLM deciding to read the files, it's the harness in Claude Code itself injecting the instructions files based on the paths the model accesses. Edit: sometimes if Claude lists files in a directory or does a search that shows it an AGENTS.md exists it will decide to read it. But it's not a reliable behavior.