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How big is your claude.md file? I see people complain about this but I have only seen it happen in projects with very long/complex or insufficient claude.md fil

How big is your claude.md file? I see people complain about this but I have only seen it happen in projects with very long/complex or insufficient claude.md files. I put a lot of time into crafting that file by hand for each project because it's not something it will generate well on its own with /init.

tecoholic 1y ago
Also I am confused by the “wall of exclamation marks”. Is that in the Claude.md file or the Claude Code output? Is that useful in Claude.md? Feels like it’s either going to confuse the LLM or probably just gets stripped.
mudkipdev 1y ago
I always just tag the relevant parts of the codebase manually with @ syntax and tell it create this, add unit tests, then format the code and make sure it compiles. There is nothing important enough in my opinion that I have felt the need to create an MD file
- matthuggins 1y ago
  Where can I find docs about Claude @ syntax?
  - j_bum 1y ago
    I think the parent comment is simply referring to “@“-ing files in the chat. So if you want CC to edit “file.R”, the prompt might look like: “Fix the the function tagged with ‘TODO-bug’ in @file.R” That file is then prioritized for the agent to evaluate.
whoisthemachine 1y ago
What's the right size claude.md file in your experience?
- typpilol 1y ago
  My experience is with copilot and it uses various models, but the sweet spot is between 60 and 120 lines. With psuedo xml tags between sections Might be different across platforms due to how stuff is setup though.
  - Sammi 1y ago
    My AGENTS.md is 845 lines and it only started getting good once it got that long. I'm still wanting to add much more... I'm thinking maybe I need a folder of short doc files and an index in AGENTS.md describing the different doc files and when to use them instead.
    - typpilol 1y ago
      I know copilot supports nested agent files per folder.
Zarathruster 1y ago
When I first got started with CC, and hadn't given context management too much consideration, I also encountered problems with non-compliance of CLAUDE.md. If you wipe context, CLAUDE.md seems to get very high priority in the next response. All of this is to say that, in addition to the content of CLAUDE.md, context seems to play a role.
te_chris 1y ago
Very long OR insufficient. Ah yes, the goldilocks Claude.md
jimbokun 1y ago
At what point does futzing with your claude.md take time equivalent to just writing the code yourself?

tecoholic 1y ago

Also I am confused by the “wall of exclamation marks”. Is that in the Claude.md file or the Claude Code output? Is that useful in Claude.md? Feels like it’s either going to confuse the LLM or probably just gets stripped.

mudkipdev 1y ago

I always just tag the relevant parts of the codebase manually with @ syntax and tell it create this, add unit tests, then format the code and make sure it compiles. There is nothing important enough in my opinion that I have felt the need to create an MD file

matthuggins 1y ago
Where can I find docs about Claude @ syntax?
- j_bum 1y ago
  I think the parent comment is simply referring to “@“-ing files in the chat. So if you want CC to edit “file.R”, the prompt might look like: “Fix the the function tagged with ‘TODO-bug’ in @file.R” That file is then prioritized for the agent to evaluate.

whoisthemachine 1y ago

What's the right size claude.md file in your experience?

typpilol 1y ago
My experience is with copilot and it uses various models, but the sweet spot is between 60 and 120 lines. With psuedo xml tags between sections Might be different across platforms due to how stuff is setup though.
- Sammi 1y ago
  My AGENTS.md is 845 lines and it only started getting good once it got that long. I'm still wanting to add much more... I'm thinking maybe I need a folder of short doc files and an index in AGENTS.md describing the different doc files and when to use them instead.
  - typpilol 1y ago
    I know copilot supports nested agent files per folder.

Zarathruster 1y ago

When I first got started with CC, and hadn't given context management too much consideration, I also encountered problems with non-compliance of CLAUDE.md. If you wipe context, CLAUDE.md seems to get very high priority in the next response. All of this is to say that, in addition to the content of CLAUDE.md, context seems to play a role.

te_chris 1y ago

Very long OR insufficient. Ah yes, the goldilocks Claude.md

jimbokun 1y ago

At what point does futzing with your claude.md take time equivalent to just writing the code yourself?