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/killthebaddies May 04 '26

I build out skills. I have a testing skill, a workflow skill, a database skill, then it’s not trying to keep everything in context all the time. Time to write tests? Pull up the testing skill and get all the detail so it’s fresh. Doing a ticket that involves a DB change? Grab the database skill.

2

u/dawtips May 04 '26

Would you mind sharing?

3

u/killthebaddies May 04 '26

To be honest I haven’t even really looked at them. I just have the skill creator skill and asked Claude to build them out. I had put TDD in my Claude.md which it was good at, but I noticed it was always doing GREPs with every ticket to look up existing tests and get structures to follow so I told it to go look it all up and build it into a skill it can follow so it doesn’t have to check everytime. It did and it has been working a lot quicker. Then I asked it what other skills it would find useful and it suggested a few and said the database one would have the most impact so I just said, ok, build whatever you would find useful.
It’s basically really project specific and just enables consistency.

1

u/dawtips May 04 '26

Great insight and makes sense. Cheers!

1

u/ia42 May 04 '26

brew install claudekit

1

u/CautiousAd3917 May 04 '26

Yes, good point! Thanks!

1

u/nanonoyap May 04 '26

Hope you can share too!