In Claude Code, use CLAUDE.md for concise instructions people want the agent to follow repeatedly—such as project commands, conventions, architecture, and constraints. Use auto memory for useful learnings Claude Code accumulates, such as corrections, preferences, and project context that is not apparent from the repository. Both are context, not enforcement: use settings or hooks when a restriction must be guaranteed.
CLAUDE.md and auto memory have different jobs
A practical distinction is authorship and intent: CLAUDE.md is a human-maintained briefing; Claude Code auto memory is a notebook of accumulated learnings. Both can inform the agent, but neither should be treated as a technical control that blocks an action.
| Use | What belongs there | Examples |
|---|---|---|
CLAUDE.md |
Stable, recurring instructions people want specified for a project or scope | Build and test commands, coding conventions, architecture, hard constraints, and known gotchas |
| Auto memory | Relevant context or patterns Claude Code accumulates while working | Corrections, user preferences, and repository details that cannot be inferred from the code |
Anthropic says both are loaded as context in Claude Code, rather than enforced configuration. Auto memory loading is limited to its first 200 lines or 25 KB, according to the Claude Code memory documentation.
What to put in CLAUDE.md
Put information in the project instruction file when it is stable, useful across recurring work in that scope, and something the team wants to state explicitly. A new contributor—or an agent opening the repository for the first time—should be able to use it without rediscovering the same conventions.
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- Commands to build, test, lint, or run the project.
- Architecture and important boundaries between components.
- Team conventions that are not obvious from the code.
- Hard constraints and recurring gotchas.
Keep the file concise. Anthropic’s Help Center recommends keeping CLAUDE.md under roughly 200 lines and periodically removing stale entries; that is a heuristic, not a technical limit. Avoid duplicating full documentation, changelogs, obvious file-tree facts, or aspirational rules that do not give the agent actionable guidance. See Anthropic Help Center guidance.
What to put in auto memory
Auto memory is suited to knowledge Claude Code picks up through work rather than a team rule someone deliberately writes. Examples include a preference the user has expressed, a correction after an approach failed, or project context that cannot be derived from source files.
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Claude Code’s current documentation describes auto memory as per repository and shared across worktrees. Treat its notes as useful but fallible: accumulated information can become outdated or conflict with current instructions, so review it and remove what no longer applies.
Choose the right scope and format
Not every instruction belongs in one always-loaded project file. Use the scope that matches who needs the information and when it applies:
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- Shared project rules: Put team-wide conventions and commands in a reviewed, version-controlled project
CLAUDE.md. - Your general preferences: Put personal guidance that should apply across projects in
~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. - Your preferences for one project: Use
CLAUDE.local.mdfor unshared project-specific guidance and add it to.gitignore. - Rules for selected files: Put path-scoped guidance in
.claude/rules/withpathsfrontmatter, rather than loading it for every task. - Reusable multi-step procedures: Put them in skills, not in a large always-loaded briefing.
Claude Code’s memory documentation describes managed, user-wide, project, and project-local instruction scopes. Files above the working directory load at launch; subdirectory instruction files are loaded when Claude reads in those directories.
What if a project already uses AGENTS.md?
Claude Code’s handling of AGENTS.md is conditional. By default, it reads AGENTS.md when there is no CLAUDE.md or CLAUDE.local.md in the working directory or above it. If both instruction-file types exist, Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md files by default; you can import AGENTS.md from CLAUDE.md or change the Project instructions setting to configure the choice.
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Directly reading AGENTS.md requires Claude Code version 2.1.277 or later, and Anthropic’s documentation notes that support may be unavailable in some sessions. Check the current Claude Code settings documentation for the behavior applicable to your version and configuration.
Instructions are not enforcement
A sentence in CLAUDE.md can steer Claude Code, but it cannot guarantee that the agent will comply. Anthropic explicitly distinguishes context from enforced configuration in its Claude Code documentation. Do not store a must-follow security or compliance restriction only in an instruction file.
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For mandatory controls, configure enforced settings that block relevant tools, commands, or paths, or use sandbox isolation as appropriate. A PreToolUse hook is the documented option for blocking an action regardless of the model’s decision. See Claude Code settings and Claude Code hooks.
Do not confuse Claude Code memory with other Anthropic memory systems
“Agent memory” can refer to separate products and interfaces, not a single feature interchangeable with Claude Code auto memory.
- Claude Code auto memory is the product feature described above: repository-related learnings Claude Code accumulates and loads as context.
- Anthropic Managed Agents memory stores are workspace-scoped collections of text documents attached when a session is created. Agents can access them using agent tools; stores support read-write or read-only access, and changes create immutable versions. For self-hosted sandboxes, local copies are synchronized rather than live-mounted. Anthropic labels this capability beta and documents the
agent-memory-2026-07-22beta header. See the Managed Agents memory documentation. - The Claude API Memory tool is an interface through which an application handles requested memory operations against storage the application chooses, such as local files, a database, cloud storage, or encrypted files. The implementing application is responsible for safeguards such as path validation. Anthropic’s suggested long-running-work pattern uses progress, feature-checklist, and session-end update files as a recovery aid. See the API Memory tool documentation.
Protect memory from poisoning and drift
Writable memory can carry untrusted content into future sessions. Anthropic warns that prompt injection in untrusted prompts or fetched content can cause malicious material to be written to a Managed Agents memory store, where later sessions may read it as trusted memory. Use read-only access when an agent does not need to change reference material. For a custom API Memory tool implementation, validate paths and prevent traversal outside the memory directory.
Memory also loses value when it becomes stale or contradictory. Keep instructions concise, resolve conflicts between files, and periodically review accumulated notes. Add guidance after a repeated error reveals a genuine missing rule, and remove it when the convention or project changes.
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