One of the most frustrating things about working with AI coding assistants has been their goldfish memory. You fix a subtle bug on Monday, explain to the agent exactly why the naive implementation doesn’t work, and by Tuesday you’re explaining it again from scratch. Session starts, context resets, you start over.

Anthropic just shipped a fix for that. Claude Code now has auto-memory: it automatically creates and maintains a MEMORY.md file in your project, tracking debugging patterns, project-specific context, and your preferred working methods — across sessions, without any manual setup required.

The feature is live as of February 27, 2026, and it’s on by default.

How It Works

When you use Claude Code in a project, it now automatically maintains a MEMORY.md file at the project root. Claude Code writes to this file without being asked, capturing things it determines are worth remembering:

  • Debugging patterns — recurring issues, their root causes, and the fixes that worked
  • Project context — architecture decisions, naming conventions, known gotchas
  • Your preferences — how you like code structured, what kinds of solutions you prefer, your testing approach
  • Prior conversations — important decisions and reasoning from past sessions

When you start a new session in the same project, Claude Code reads this file as part of its initial context. It knows what you’ve already established. It doesn’t ask you to re-explain things you’ve already explained.

Accessing and Controlling Memory

The memory feature is on by default, but Anthropic has given you several ways to control it:

In-session control: Type /memory in a Claude Code session to view what’s been captured and manage entries.

Settings file: You can configure memory behavior in your Claude Code settings file — enabling or disabling it, controlling what categories of information get captured, or setting a size limit.

Environment variable: Set CLAUDE_CODE_MEMORY=false to disable auto-memory for specific environments (useful in CI/CD or shared workstations where per-project memory files aren’t appropriate).

The MEMORY.md file is a plain markdown file in your project. You can read it, edit it, delete entries, or add your own notes manually. Claude Code treats it as authoritative — if you write something in it directly, Claude Code will respect it.

The Multi-Device Continuation Feature

Alongside auto-memory, Anthropic shipped a companion update: locally running Claude Code sessions can now be continued from any device via claude.ai/code.

This means you can start a session on your work laptop, leave mid-task, and pick it up from your home machine or phone without losing the conversational context of where you were. Combined with the persistent MEMORY.md, your coding agent now maintains two layers of continuity: long-term project memory (in the file) and short-term session continuity (via the cloud continuation feature).

What This Means in Practice

For developers who use Claude Code regularly on the same project, this is a significant quality-of-life improvement. The benefits compound over time:

  • Fewer re-explanations. You set up your preferences once; Claude Code remembers them.
  • Better debugging. If Claude Code has seen a class of bug in your codebase before, it can reference that history when you encounter a related issue.
  • More coherent long-term collaboration. The agent builds up a model of your project over weeks, not just within a single session.

For teams, the MEMORY.md file is worth committing to your repository — it effectively becomes a living document that new team members (and AI assistants) can use to understand how the project works and what decisions have been made.

One Consideration: What Gets Written

Because MEMORY.md is written automatically, it’s worth reviewing periodically to ensure it hasn’t captured information you’d prefer not to persist — especially in projects that might be shared or open-sourced. Anthropic’s docs at code.claude.com/docs/en/memory cover the full set of controls.

If you’re using Claude Code in environments where MEMORY.md files would be inappropriate (shared CI environments, multi-user workstations), the environment variable disable is the cleanest way to opt out at the system level.

Sources

  1. The Decoder — “Claude Code now remembers your fixes, your preferences, and your project quirks on its own”
  2. Anthropic — Official Claude Code memory docs

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