We Thought More Rules Meant Better Behavior
CLAUDE.md is the memo file Claude Code reads first when it starts a task. Every time something went wrong, I added one more line, and before long the file hit 80 lines. Oddly, the bot began re-asking about rules that were already written down, about 6 times a day.
The Culprit Was Length
When there are too many rules, the important ones and the trivial ones carry the same weight. Even people don't finish an 80-line list of warnings. Worse, about half of it was leftover residue from old incidents that were long solved.
Three Steps You Can Follow
1. Open the file and ask of every rule: 「If this line were gone, would something actually break?」
2. If not, delete it. Move one-off circumstances into a separate memo file.
3. Sort what remains into three groups: must do, must never do, and ask first.
Must do
• Leave a 3-line summary of changes when a task ends
Never
• Do not deploy without approval
Ask first
• Confirm before deleting, sending, or paying
The Result
After cutting 80 lines to 25 and watching for a week, the re-asking dropped from 6 a day to 2. It is a small experiment on our own team, but the difference was easy to feel.
Tip: Don't throw away the rules you remove. Keep them in an archive file and bring them back only when you need them.