Skip to content

🌐 日本語

Part 3: Always-Loaded Context — CLAUDE.md

NOTE

Information that is always loaded when a session begins. This is a "fixed cost" in your context budget and requires the most careful management.

Why It Matters

CLAUDE.md is information that the LLM reads every turn. This means everything you write here consumes your context budget continuously. Write too much and you trigger Priority Saturation; write too little and the LLM generates code without knowing important constraints.

→ Why: Which Structural Problems Does It Address?

IMPORTANT

  • Priority Saturation: The 200-line limit is designed to keep the number of simultaneously active instructions below the degradation threshold.
  • Prompt Sensitivity: Concrete, directive language reduces result variance caused by ambiguous phrasing.
  • Context Rot: Hierarchical merging and scope separation prevent the accumulation of unnecessary information.

Documents in This Section

DocumentContent
Design Principles of CLAUDE.mdWhat to write and why 200 lines
How Hierarchical Merging WorksGlobal → Project → Local → Subdirectory
Operating CLAUDE.local.mdPersonal configuration outside Git

Previous: Part 2: Understanding the Context WindowNext: Part 4: Conditional Context

Released under the CC BY 4.0 License.