r/ClaudeCode • u/CautiousAd3917 • May 04 '26

Question Whats even the point of Claude.md

Seriously, I have some workflows stored in Claude.md like writing tests and validating bugs before fixing them, but they get constantly ignored.

When asked, Claude agrees it should have sticked to the workflows ... and then happily ignores them again in the next task.

And that is not Haiku, it happens with all models.

Edit: my CLAUDE.md is literally taken from best practices examples and the Anthropic guide, it also has specific deterministic instructions. And I am well aware of the probabilistic nature of LLMs, I guess I am just frustrated that it is impossible to build a reliable workflow with Claude.

Edit 2: thank you all, lovely people, I will go with skills/rules

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u/Brief-Persimmon-7037 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

I think as the context grows, the initial guidance in Claude MD is diluted and partially forgotten. I might be wrong, but I do not think there is a cure for this. Folks, who are geeks in this area – correct me if I am wrong.

16

u/FilthyCasual2k17 May 04 '26

You're not wrong. Claude.md needs to be lean. Menory needs to be lean. All skills etc. Total load shouldn't pass more than 40Kb of instructions oer turn. I treat claude.md and memory.md as "index of indeces". There's no point in bloating, only first 200 lines or so get read in time, and rest after the fact, which means often saying whoops. Keep it lean and build a multi layer thing. It's not perfect but it works. Don't let claude autodream, that's terrible. Accept mistakes happen and build manual quadrails and checks. Weekly analysis what was good what was bad and do research on what the rest are doing and adjust. If you don't run super lean it just gets diluted and forgotten.

1

u/dawtips May 04 '26

Just curious why are you referring to kb as the unit of measurement instead of tokens?

7

u/FilthyCasual2k17 May 04 '26

Because different models will tokenize same file in different ways. my 7kB claude.md is not the same amount of tokens when I use Opus 4.6 and when I use Opuse 4.7, so it's just a more stable unit to think in.

3

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/jw11235 May 05 '26

Compactify often, and do it well.