Set setting_sources=[] to stop duplicating the prompt bundle#179
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Nerve builds the entire system prompt itself — the identity/memory bundle (SOUL/IDENTITY/USER/AGENTS/TOOLS/MEMORY) via system_prompt, plus permissions, MCP servers, hooks and env passed explicitly. Left at the default, the Claude Code CLI also auto-loads ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (the bundle its own renderer writes for external claude-code use), duplicating tens of thousands of tokens on every turn. Passing setting_sources=[] disables all filesystem settings/memory loading. ["project"] alone is insufficient: the managed workspace lives under $HOME, so project-root detection climbs to $HOME and loads the user-level CLAUDE.md under both the "user" and "project" sources. Native skills/plugins are unaffected (loaded via plugins / --plugin-dir). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
pufit
approved these changes
Jul 17, 2026
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Problem
Nerve builds the entire system prompt itself: the identity/memory bundle (
SOUL/IDENTITY/USER/AGENTS/TOOLS/MEMORY) is injected viasystem_prompt, and permissions (can_use_tool), MCP servers (mcp_servers), hooks and env are all passed explicitly toClaudeAgentOptions.With
setting_sourcesleft at its default, the Claude Code CLI additionally loads filesystem settings/memory — including~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, which is the very same bundle the Claude Code renderer writes for external claude-code use. The result is the identity/memory bundle appearing twice in context — tens of thousands of duplicated tokens on every turn.Fix
Pass
setting_sources=[]in the Claude backend'sClaudeAgentOptions, disabling all filesystem-based settings/memory loading. Nerve owns the whole prompt, so there is nothing legitimate to load from disk.Why
[]and not["project"]An earlier attempt to drop only the user-level
CLAUDE.mdwith["project"]is insufficient: the managed workspace lives under$HOME, so the CLI's project-root detection climbs to$HOMEand loads~/.claude/CLAUDE.mdunder both the"user"and"project"sources. Only the empty list removes it entirely.Native skills/plugins are unaffected — they load via
plugins(--plugin-dir), independent ofsetting_sources.Verification
["project"]and["user"]both re-inject the bundle while[]does not (the emitted--setting-sources=is parsed as "none", not the default["user","project"]).1547 passed, 2 skipped.claudeMdcontext block, native skills still present.