Claude Code reads AGENTS.md only with telemetry
The gist
A blog post measured that Claude Code reads AGENTS.md only when telemetry is on.
The gap between the announced fallback and the shipped default affects privacy-conscious developers.
How it unfolded
- Sep 21, 2026Anthropic technical staff member Thariq Shihipar posted that Claude Code would support AGENTS.md starting in version 2.1.277, checking for and using AGENTS.md when no CLAUDE.md exists in a folder.
- Sep 21, 2026Coverage described the change as an AGENTS.md fallback that cuts instruction file sprawl, and as Claude Code accepting instructions in OpenAI's Agents.md format.
- Sep 23, 2026Przemek published a blog post measuring that Claude Code reads AGENTS.md only when telemetry is on, because the loader sits behind a remote feature flag.