# Developer finds Claude Code skips AGENTS.md when telemetry is disabled

_Published Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 9:20 AM EDT · AI · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

A developer testing Claude Code found that it silently skipped project instructions in AGENTS.md when telemetry or other nonessential traffic was disabled. The developer traced the behavior to a remote feature flag controlling the file loader and reproduced it with a test file containing a distinctive word.

The finding affects teams that rely on AGENTS.md to share instructions across coding agents: Claude Code can answer without ever reading that file. In the developer's tests, an AGENTS.md import placed in CLAUDE.md loaded the instructions while nonessential traffic remained disabled.

## Sources

- [blog.szypowi.cz](https://blog.szypowi.cz/p/claude-code-reads-agents.md-only-when-telemetry-is-on/)

---
Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/o-UnsEXzCph6nrQjDMBZb7
Published: 2026-09-23T13:20:25.864Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-23T10:00:00.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-09-23T15:51:52.064Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)