CLAUDE.md size warning shows incorrect character count (44K reported vs 17K actual)

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Feb 1, 2026 by joshduffy Closed Mar 2, 2026

Bug: CLAUDE.md size warning shows incorrect character count

Version: 2.1.27 (regression - not present in 2.1.17)

Warning message:

⚠Large CLAUDE.md will impact performance (44.2k chars > 40.0k) • /memory to edit

Actual file sizes:

  • ~/CLAUDE.md: 4,513 chars
  • ~/Projects/changemanaged.io/CLAUDE.md: 12,708 chars
  • Total: 17,221 chars

Expected: No warning (17K < 40K threshold)
Actual: Warning claims 44.2K chars

Hypothesis: The calculation may be:

  • Counting files multiple times
  • Including other CLAUDE.md files from unrelated directories
  • Including additional system prompt content in the count

Repro:

  1. Have a global ~/CLAUDE.md (~4.5K chars)
  2. Have a project CLAUDE.md (~12.7K chars)
  3. Start fresh session in the project directory
  4. Warning appears with inflated character count

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