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Claude Code now reads AGENTS.md if there is no Claude.md

741 points · 285 comments · datadrivenangel

  1. perganomoly · · focus · HN ↗
    The fact that it took this long to add such a basic feature is a disgrace. I’m not even remotely satisfied. Bailed on Claude ages ago. Rolling Codex, Gemini, and Qwen3.8 30B. The only way I’m going back to Anthropic is if they drop and Culture Series mind.
    1. thiht · · focus · HN ↗
      That’s a strong opinion for a mild inconvenience that’s trivially solved with a symlink
      1. athrowaway3z · · focus · HN ↗
        Its indicative of a pattern of behavior where they want to upsell you into their ecosystem and keep you there.

        They don't even allow alternative harnesses on their subscription model. (But they do allow a agent-sdk that can pretend to be a generic compatible endpoint the alternative harnesses can use).

        If you like your stuff overengineered, gated, and over-priced then by all means.

        Its not even wrong from Anthropic because it's the path to most profit.

        I'll take the opinion of people who have strong opinions about mild inconveniences.

        Between my goals and Anthropic's bottom line, i want my goal to win out without needless inconveniences.

        1. thiht · · focus · HN ↗
          These arguments have nothing to do with Claude supporting or not supporting AGENTS.md.
          1. athrowaway3z · · focus · HN ↗
            > Its indicative of a pattern of behavior

            If you think I'm wrong, and these arguments have nothing to do with it, just tell us what explains Claude not supporting AGENTS.md.

            Was it such a grand engineering challenge? Too many 'legacy' projects relying on both AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md and that has recently changed?

            I've made clear my belief on the reason behind it - branding decisions outweighing utility.

            Add something to the thread by sharing your version of a 'more likely' decision process that led to the choice to only now support it.

            1. zeratax · · focus · HN ↗
              not that i agree, but this is what an anthropic engineer said about this:

              > Our reasoning for this was that we don't think that model families are interchangeable and the system prompt can have a big impact on performance.

              <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;trq212&#x2F;status&#x2F;2092302273099796842" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;trq212&#x2F;status&#x2F;2092302273099796842

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