If you're authoring shared instructions across both Claude Code and Cowork from the same repo, bridge
AGENTS.md → CLAUDE.mdwith a symlink, not an@import— Code expands@AGENTS.md, Cowork treats it as literal text. Discovered the hard way; fix isln -s AGENTS.md CLAUDE.md.
Context. Spent yesterday refactoring a combo repo to work cleanly across Code + Cowork — extracting procedures into skills, trimming AGENTS.md, putting an audit on quarterly cadence. Found 5 Code/Cowork asymmetries that matter for anyone using both surfaces on the same repo.
1. CLAUDE.md @import doesn't work in Cowork.
The Anthropic memory docs recommend a CLAUDE.md containing @AGENTS.md to bridge naming conventions. Code expands this directive on load. Cowork treats it as literal text. Result: instructions silently disappear in Cowork while your Code session looks fine.
Fix: replace the import with a symlink.