Claude gives incorrect/incomplete answers about its own config file locations

Summary

When asked where MCP server tokens are stored, Claude confidently stated only one location (~/.claude/settings.json), missing ~/.claude.json entirely. The token was actually found in ~/.claude.json.

What happened

1. User asked which file their GitLab MCP token was stored in
2. Claude said it was only in ~/.claude/settings.json — incorrect and stated with confidence
3. User later found the (stale/expired) token in ~/.claude.json
4. When investigating, Claude launched a documentation-search agent instead of simply reading the two obvious candidate files directly
5. The agent returned a confident but inaccurate breakdown of what each file is for
6. Claude still did not find the correct answer until the user pointed it out

Why this matters

Claude hallucinating about its own configuration is a higher-trust failure than hallucinating about user code. Users have no way to know they should second-guess Claude about Claude's own settings files. A user following Claude's advice here would never find their token.

Expected behavior

Claude should either:

• Know authoritatively which files can contain MCP configs, or
• Immediately read the candidate files directly rather than speculating or delegating to a doc-search agent