Five Lines That Stop the Bad Guesses
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Five Lines That Stop the Bad Guesses
The first thing Claude needs to know is context about you. Not your life story. Just enough to stop it making bad assumptions.
Without this, Claude defaults to generic — writing for a general audience, using the wrong regional English, suggesting tools you don’t use, formatting things in ways you’d never format them.
Here’s the kind of thing that goes in your identity section:
## About Me
- I'm a freelance consultant based in [city, country]
- I write in [British/American] English
- My primary tools are [tool 1], [tool 2], and [tool 3]
- I publish a [newsletter/podcast/blog] called [name]
- I prefer [terminal-first / GUI / browser-based] workflowsThat’s it. Five lines. But now Claude knows your locale, your language preference, your tool stack, your output channel, and your working style. Every response it generates will be shaped by these facts instead of guessing.
Common mistakes to avoid:
- Don’t write a biography. Claude doesn’t need your career history.
- Don’t include things that change often. “I’m working on Project X” belongs in a project CLAUDE.md, not the global one.
- Don’t list every tool you’ve ever used. List the ones you actually use daily.
Your turn: Open ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and add an “About Me” section. Five lines. Who you are, where you are, what tools you use, what you produce.