A developer is troubleshooting why Claude Code cannot access a file th — Claude Code Certified Professional Practice — Claude Cert Academy

A developer is troubleshooting why Claude Code cannot access a file that exists on disk. They confirm the file path is correct. What should they check next?

• Whether the file is listed in .gitignore, which Claude Code respects as a block list
• Whether the file is excluded by an ignore pattern in .claude/settings.json or via a deny rule
• Whether CLAUDE_FILE_ACCESS=false is set in the environment
• Whether the file extension is in Claude Code's supported types list

Answer: Whether the file is excluded by an ignore pattern in .claude/settings.json or via a deny rule

Claude Code's file access is governed by allow/deny rules in .claude/settings.json (or user/system settings). A deny rule matching the path will block access. .gitignore affects git operations, not Claude Code file access. CLAUDE_FILE_ACCESS is not a real environment variable. Claude Code can read any text file regardless of extension.

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