Unset DISABLE_TELEMETRY if you want Claude Code’s native AGENTS.md fallback. =0 still skips the file. Live env-vars (dateModified 2026-09-23T01:47:01.480Z) treat any non-empty value as opt-out and turn off feature-flag fetching, the same as DISABLE_GROWTHBOOK. DO_NOT_TRACK=0 leaves fetching on. I did not run 2.1.280.

Live memory docs (dateModified 2026-09-22T17:25:51.616Z) list the skip: no flag fetch (telemetry off, Bedrock and other third-party hosts), the first session after install or upgrade, and a disabled agents-md plugin. In those sessions /config hides Project instructions. The interactive receipt when the native loader ran is no CLAUDE.md found; AGENTS.md loaded: /home/you/repo/AGENTS.md.

A one-line CLAUDE.md with @AGENTS.md loads the file without waiting on the flag. Project and local settings files ignore instructionFiles. Comment: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/95690#issuecomment-5799278458