docs(agents): make CLAUDE.md an import instead of a symlink - #134
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CLAUDE.md was a symlink to AGENTS.md. Git on Windows defaults to core.symlinks=false and checks a symlink out as a plain text file whose contents are the string "AGENTS.md", which Claude Code reads literally instead of following, so on those checkouts the repository silently has no agent instructions and nothing reports an error. Replaced with the `@AGENTS.md` import that thirteen other SDK repositories already use, with the reason recorded in the file. The guidance stays in AGENTS.md; nothing is duplicated, so the two cannot drift. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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September 28, 2026 18:47
crisryantan
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Why
An agent opening this repository on Windows can end up with no agent instructions at all, and
nothing says so.
CLAUDE.mdis a symlink toAGENTS.md; git on Windows defaults tocore.symlinks=falseand checks a symlink out as an ordinary text file whose entire contents arethe string
AGENTS.md. Claude Code reads that literally rather than following it, so therepository's rules, traps and review expectations are silently absent for that developer. Once this
lands, every checkout gets the instructions, on every platform.
Programme
Standalone change, no programme.
What changes
CLAUDE.mdstops being a symlink and becomes a one-line@AGENTS.mdimport, with a comment sayingwhy it is an import rather than a symlink so the next person does not "tidy" it back. All guidance
stays in
AGENTS.mdand nothing is duplicated, so the two files cannot drift apart. This is thepattern thirteen other SDK repositories already use; six, including this one, still had the symlink.
No behaviour, no shipped code, no test changes.
Linked work
Related: the same one-file change is being made in the other SDK repositories that still symlink
CLAUDE.md, each as its own pull request.Rollout
Nothing changes in production; if this is wrong, revert the pull request.
Risks
worked; the import is already the pattern in thirteen sibling repositories; we would see it as an
agent that does not know this repository's rules.
Risk class: low.
Who
Written by: an automated coding agent, as part of a prompt-and-instruction audit across the SDK
repositories that checked agent instruction files against what the repositories actually contain.
Code reviewed before opening: no one.
Design reviewed before opening: no one.
Decision this implements: no prior decision record; the reasoning is in this description, and the
convention it adopts is visible in the sibling repositories that already use the import.
Checked: confirmed
git ls-files -s CLAUDE.mdreported mode120000before the change and100644after; confirmedAGENTS.mdis unchanged; confirmed the import form matches the siblingrepositories.
Not checked: the Windows behaviour is taken from git's documented
core.symlinksdefault and fromthe reason recorded in the sibling repositories, not reproduced on a Windows machine here.
Size
Hand-written: 8 lines, 1 file.
Generated: none.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code