A Briefing Document, Not a Config File
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A Briefing Document, Not a Config File
Most people hear “configuration file” and their eyes glaze over. Fair enough. But this isn’t config in the traditional sense. There’s no syntax to learn, no YAML indentation to fight with. It’s a markdown file with instructions written in plain English.
When Claude Code launches in a directory, it looks for CLAUDE.md and reads it into context. Think of it as a briefing document. You’re the boss, Claude’s the new hire, and CLAUDE.md is the onboarding packet that prevents them from asking you the same questions every morning.
There are three levels:
Global (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md) — applies to everything. Your universal preferences, communication style, tools you use, rules that never change.
Project (.claude/CLAUDE.md in any repo) — specific to that codebase. Tech stack, conventions, deployment process, gotchas.
User-project (.claude/CLAUDE.local.md) — your personal overrides that don’t get committed to git. Private paths, API conventions, personal workflow quirks.
Claude reads all three, layered. Global first, then project, then local. Later layers can override earlier ones.
Do this now: Open your terminal. Run mkdir -p ~/.claude && touch ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. You’ve just created your global instructions file. It’s empty, but it exists. We’ll fill it in over the next sections.