CLAUDE.md and memory

Where CLAUDE.md lives, what belongs in it, and why Claude might ignore it.

All answers

• What is the difference between global and project CLAUDE.md?

  Your personal file and the project file are concatenated, not merged or overridden. What that means when they disagree, and which one Claude reads last.

• What should be included in CLAUDE.md?

  Facts Claude should hold every session, under 200 lines. Which instructions belong in skills or path-scoped rules instead, and why imports do not save context.

• Where should CLAUDE.md be located?

  Four scopes, from managed policy to CLAUDE.local.md, plus the rule that decides which files load at launch and which wait until Claude reads a subdirectory.

• Why is Claude Code ignoring CLAUDE.md?

  CLAUDE.md is context, not enforced configuration. How to verify a file actually loaded, and what to use when an instruction must run every time.

Related topics

• Sessions
• MCP