Developer finds hidden 'ip_reminder' tag in Claude Code session logs, raises cost concerns

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A developer using Anthropic's Claude Code discovered an undisclosed system-prompt tag called 'ip_reminder' appearing repeatedly in local session logs stored under ~/.claude/projects/. By grepping the JSONL log files, the developer found 151 lines referencing the tag and 17 opening tags with zero corresponding closing tags in a single session. Several similar findings had previously been reported by other users on Anthropic's GitHub, with one claim citing over 10,000 hidden injections and another estimating roughly $133 in extra token costs at Opus 4 API rates. All related GitHub issues — totalling at least four — were closed by Anthropic with a status of 'not planned', without a public explanation. The episode has prompted questions about transparency around hidden context injected into user sessions and whether such overhead is reflected in cost reporting tools.

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