Study Reveals 'Ratchet Effect' Causing Infinite Growth in CLAUDE.md

A study of 1,867 GitHub repos reveals a 'ratchet effect' in AI agent instruction files like CLAUDE.md, where commands are easily added but rarely deleted. Adding comments can reduce redundant instructions by 99.3%.

2026-08-13 ~ 2026-08-14 · 2 related posts

• Study: CLAUDE.md files grow unbounded; comments cut 99.3% excess instructions — omarsar0 · 2026-08-13
• Why CLAUDE.md Keeps Growing? Paper Reveals 'Catastrophic Remembering' in Agents — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-08-14