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Posted by datadrivenangel 4 days ago

Claude Code now reads AGENTS.md if there is no Claude.md(code.claude.com)
739 points | 286 commentspage 5
laluneodyssee 4 days ago|
Just to touch on the wording of "in a project with no CLAUDE.md" does that mean user-level ~/AGENTS.md or ~/.agents/AGENTS.md isnt supported?
winwang 4 days ago||
Gotta say, it is hilarious that this is the current top HN post. I feel like it's gotta say something about our current AI zeitgeist, that there is such vigorous attention on a seemingly-minor change. Feels like something is on the tip of my tongue but I can't name it at the moment.

If anyone wants to write/link a much better-thought-out post, I'm all ears!

blfr 4 days ago||
It's just so nice when even crazy people agree to some sane standard. Like USB c, like having dark mode, just nice.
afavour 4 days ago|||
I suppose it’s reflective of where the industry is. Claude is just that ubiquitous.

Reminds me of when you’d see posts for React 16.0.3 or whatever. Absolutely minor news, but multiply that by the number of users…

Now I just need to figure out which one makes me feel worse.

winwang 4 days ago||
Another commenter appreciated the move towards a sane/nice standard. I am definitely on that side of the table. I'd rather feel good about the move -- good enough to ignore the other implied issues, lol.

I also think your point has at least one decent reading: that the upvotes help other practictioners update their mental model of their tools. There's probably also some value due to being an implicit "Claude Code megathread" for commenters to congregate around. News so minor that it does't even really make sense to force people to fully stay on topic, hah.

QuantumGood 4 days ago|||
One of many "new normal" artifacts that seem all the more strange when the pace of change accelerates.
useruser125524 4 days ago|||
I read it more as sarcastic engagement since this should have been the case for a year+.
ex-aws-dude 4 days ago||
OMG THEY CHANGED THE FONT, TOP OF HN!!!
mitxela 4 days ago||
You joke but cloudflare tunnels got a new vibewritten slopsite today and made the top of HN
anukin 4 days ago||
Thank you Tobi Lutke.
fhub 4 days ago||
Context

“I’m thinking about banning Claude Code at Shopify until they change their mind and read AGENTS.md and .agents/skills etc.,”

- Tobi Lütke on X.

deaux 4 days ago||
Next he needs to tweet about ~/.agents/skills
getpokedagain 4 days ago||
Wow..... Progress and technical innovation right here!!!
pampas 4 days ago||
I wonder if Anthropic's vending machine only serves customers wearing a Claude™ branded hat.
water-drummer 4 days ago||
Vendor locks over md file names is crazy
mrkpdl 4 days ago||
Wild that it didn’t already do this
aussieguy1234 4 days ago||
So far I've been managing this with a symlink.

Same with skills, symlink to skills at .claude/skills

datadrivenangel 4 days ago|
This allows us to remove our one line Claude.md files that just say "AGENTS.MD"
whalesalad 4 days ago|
ln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md
lolpython 4 days ago|||
Fine if you don't need to git checkout the repo on Windows :)
Arcuru 4 days ago|||
Just .gitignore CLAUDE.md and handle it locally. Checking in a symlink would be weird.
skeledrew 4 days ago||||
Wow, still not there yet. After all these years.
pixl97 4 days ago||
Windows does actually have symlinks but I don't think I've ever seen anything actually use them, and I don't myself because it smells of interop issues with other windows apps.

Even to this day Windows has all kinds of problems around long file paths in its ecosystem.

TeMPOraL 4 days ago||
> Even to this day Windows has all kinds of problems around long file paths in its ecosystem.

To this day I don't know if it's a Windows problem or a Python problem, because I never encountered this - and never realized this problem exists - except for some random Python code whose docs tell me to set some registry value because of "long paths issue".

antonvs 4 days ago|||
It’s a Windows problem. There’s still, to this day, a 259-character limit on path length in the Win32 API unless the OS has been configured to support long paths and the application uses the correct subset of Windows APIs. For example if you use ‘CreateFileA’, you’re stuck with the limit no matter what.

There’s no problem with Python in general. The registry value LongPathsEnabled, which is probably the one you were asked to set, affects the entire Windows system.

However, there’s also an older workaround that allows programs to use “extended paths” even if that setting is off, by prefixing path strings with “\\?\”. So applications using that workaround can use long paths no matter how Windows is configured. But Python doesn’t use the workaround, it uses the modern APIs and if you want long paths, you need to configure the underlying Windows system to enable it.

TeMPOraL 4 days ago||
Thanks for the explanation! This is indeed consistent with my observations.

But it brings me to two follow-up questions:

1) What is that registry switch even doing, if the problem can be solved with just setting it?

2) Why is Python not using the workaround like ~everyone else?

newAccount2025 4 days ago||||
It’s not just a windows problem. File systems are an absolute disaster across all platforms. David Wheeler has a lovely article on the topic: https://dwheeler.com/essays/fixing-unix-linux-filenames.html
antonvs 4 days ago||
The 260 character limit is just a Windows problem. See my other comment in this subthread for a summary of the eldritch horror in question. The tl;dr is that backwards compatibility is a helluva drug.
pixl97 4 days ago|||
The worst offenders I've found are powershell and .Net related stuff.

You can have all the right flags enabled, then unexpectedly you'll run some commandlet and get a path too long error.

Now if your on W11/W25 and the lastest PS it might all work, but W16 and PS versions between now and then had all kinds of things pop up.

jpollock 4 days ago||||
I'm surprised Git and/or Windows don't support symlinks?
lolpython 4 days ago|||
Windows supports it but git disables creating symlinks by default.

> Short version: there is no exact equivalent for POSIX symlinks on Windows, and the closest thing is unavailable for non-admins by default unless Developer Mode is enabled and a relatively recent Windows 10 version is used. Therefore, symlink emulation support is only turned on by default when that scenario is detected. Support can be enabled by the user, via the core.symlinks=true config setting.

See: https://gitforwindows.org/symbolic-links.html

mahboi 4 days ago||
Yeah this is why I don't trust people saying devex is fixed on Windows now. Still doesn't properly clone git repos.
ipaddr 4 days ago||||
Windows does mklink. Not surprised with git.
whalesalad 4 days ago|||
are you though?
whalesalad 4 days ago|||
oh god. sorry.
verdverm 4 days ago|||
you'll need to wrap that in a `find` because of nested instruction files
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