CLAUDE.md Is a Behavioral Contract, Not Documentation

A well-researched guide published this month confirms the highest-ROI practice for Claude Code: treat CLAUDE.md as a strict behavioral contract. Keep it under 200 lines and apply a ruthless filter — "Would removing this line cause Claude to make mistakes?" If not, cut it. Include project-specific business context, naming conventions, and domain rules that can't be inferred from code. Also: place a ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md at your home directory for cross-project conventions, and run a session retro ("What did you learn?") at the end of each session to evolve it.

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Sources: Medium (Bijit Ghosh) · DEV Community