[BUG][DOCS] Cloud Cowork sessions don't load CLAUDE.md from connected folders, and the migration notes don't mention it

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Oct 8, 2026

Summary

Before the cloud-only switch, a Cowork session working in a connected folder picked up that folder's CLAUDE.md. Cloud sessions start in the container (cwd /home/claude), so CLAUDE.md files in the connected folder (repo root and subdirectories) are no longer loaded automatically. Scheduled tasks that relied on them now run without those instructions, and nothing warns the user.

Neither the "Use Claude Cowork on web, desktop and mobile" article nor the "Claude Cowork architecture overview" article mentions CLAUDE.md or project instructions. For users with scheduled tasks this is a silent behavior change.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Put a CLAUDE.md with a distinctive instruction in a local folder.
  2. Start a cloud Cowork session (or a scheduled task) with that folder connected.
  3. Ask the agent what instructions it has, or check whether it follows the instruction. It doesn't, unless the prompt explicitly tells it to read the file through device_bash.

Expected (any of these)

  • Load CLAUDE.md from connected folders at session start, as local sessions did; or
  • Document clearly that cloud sessions don't, and show it in the migration notice for scheduled tasks; or
  • Offer a per-task or per-project setting to name instruction files to load.

Possibly related

  • #62859 (Cowork does not load ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md at session start)
  • #86647 (connected folder shows in the Project but the session gets connectedFolders: []; folder CLAUDE.md not loaded)

Environment

Same as the hardlink issue: Claude Desktop 2.26454.2, macOS arm64, Pro/Max cloud Cowork, 2026-10-08.

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