Claude Code now reads AGENTS.md if there is no Claude.md
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Claude Code now reads AGENTS.md as fallback when no CLAUDE.md exists.
In version 2.1.277 (September 18, 2026), Claude Code added support for AGENTS.md: in a project with no CLAUDE.md, it reads AGENTS.md instead. Users can change this under "Project instructions" in /config. The feature is not yet available on Bedrock, Vertex, or Foundry. This was a heavily requested change, as AGENTS.md had become a de facto standard supported by many other AI coding harnesses, while Claude Code only supported its proprietary CLAUDE.md file.
What commenters are saying
Commenters broadly praised the change as the right thing, but many expressed frustration that it took so long. Some called it the bare minimum and noted Anthropic still doesn't support .agents/skills directories. A common workaround had been symlinking AGENTS.md to CLAUDE.md, though some noted issues with Windows and nested directories. Several commenters argued that maintaining model-specific prompts is an antipattern and that a common AGENTS.md should work across models. Tobi Lutke of Shopify was cited as having threatened to ban Claude Code until it supported AGENTS.md.