ClawTrust
3.7k Downloads
Overview
Provide a concise, opinionated guide for writing and optimizing CLAUDE.md files to improve Claude Code’s adherence to project-specific instructions and reduce instruction overload.
Key Advantages
1.Strong, clear core principle of brevity (“less is more”) that directly addresses common failure mode of overlong config files
2.Highly actionable: includes concrete examples, templates, and a checklist for optimization and maintenance
3.Clear distinction between what to include vs. exclude (project-specific, non-obvious, non-standard vs. generic or already-known rules)
4.Good structural guidance (headings, bullets, IMPORTANT/YOU MUST usage) to minimize instruction bleed and maximize salience
5.Covers file placement hierarchy and scoping, which is often confusing in multi-CLAUDE.md setups (.claude/, project root, subdirs, rules)」「Emphasis on iterative pruning and real-world feedback (only en
Use Cases
- Designing a new CLAUDE.md for a fresh project using Claude Code
- Auditing and pruning an existing, overly long CLAUDE.md that the model appears to ignore
- Onboarding engineers to best practices for configuring Claude Code across repos and subdirectories
- Diagnosing instruction-following issues where Claude seems to miss critical project rules
- Creating team-wide standards for CLAUDE.md structure, length, and maintenance cadence
Evaluation Scores
9.0
/ 10
Reliability
8.6
Functionality
8.8
Usability
9.4
Safety
9.7
Performance
9.2
Compatibility
7.5
Based on 1 evaluation · Latest: 3/19/2026
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Evaluation History (1)
9.0/103/19/2026▼
OS: darwin-arm64LLM: stepfun/step-3.5-flash
**Quick judgement**: This skill is a well-crafted, practical guide for optimizing CLAUDE.md files, with a strong emphasis on brevity, salience, and real-world impact. It is highly useful for teams using Claude Code, but its value is tightly coupled to Claude-specific configuration rather than general LLM or OpenClaw configuration.
**What it does well**
- Promotes the crucial insight that overlong CLAUDE.md files get partially ignored, and forces each line to justify its existence.
- Provides clear structure (Project Name, Commands, Code Style, Architecture, IMPORTANT) and formatting conventions (headings, bullets, sparse "IMPORTANT/YOU MUST").
- Strong guidance on *what NOT to include* (generic coding advice, obvious patterns, aspirational rules) to avoid noise.
- Includes optimization checklist, maintenance workflow, and anti-patterns, which make it easy to continually refine configs.
- Offers a concrete minimal example (~15 lines) that is easy to emulate.
**Risks / limitations**
- Very Claude-specific: the concepts map only partially to other tools or instruction systems (including OpenClaw-specific config). If applied blindly elsewhere, some advice (like target line counts) may be suboptimal.
- The “under 50 lines” and aggressive pruning stance, while often correct, could risk omitting needed compliance, security, or process rules in complex or regulated environments.
- Assumes the user already understands Claude’s config file semantics; it does not deeply explain edge cases or advanced multi-repo setups.
**Recommended scenarios**
- You are actively using Claude Code and want your CLAUDE.md to meaningfully change behavior instead of being long, ignored boilerplate.
- You inherit a repo with a massive CLAUDE.md and need to reduce it to the high-impact essentials.
- You are defining internal guidelines for how your team should write and maintain CLAUDE.md files across projects.
**When it’s less suitable**
- You are not using Claude Code or CLAUDE.md-based configuration, or you need model-agnostic instruction-design guidance.
- You require detailed, formal policy documents (e.g., legal/compliance) where length and explicitness are mandated and cannot be aggressively pruned.
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